issue contents
May 2012 issue
Cover illustration: The vesiculation of bubbles, mimicking a small-scale volcanic process, in an obsidian glass sample from Las Canadas Caldera in Spain (see Fife, Rappaz, Pistone, Celcer, Mikuljan and Stampanoni, pages 352-358). The evolution of the melt is shown, while the bubbles are transparent, and the total evolution from the top-left to the bottom-right image is 10 s.
facility information
research papers
An introduction to magnetic domain memory (MDM) is given, including a description of the technique of coherent X-ray magnetic scattering, a detailed description of the speckle-correlation technique, with steps to optimize the MDM signal with field and spatial dependencies, and results showing MDM maps as a function of field, spatial scale and temperature.
An extension of the micro-beam Laue diffraction technique to higher photon energies (50–150 keV) for improved penetration into thick samples is presented. The new technique is used to study the grain-level deformation behaviour of a polycrystalline nickel sample during in situ tensile deformation.
Synchrotron-radiation phase-contrast imaging can demonstrate the subtle structures of stomach and gastric cancer, which include the tiny gastric pits, grooves and blood vessels, and the infiltration of cancer in the submucosa layer.
Successful energy calibration of a CdTe sensor pixel array detector has allowed the collection of non-energy-overlapped Laue diffraction patterns from a lysozyme crystal. Potential applications for `in situ' crystal screening are discussed.
Open access
The peak-to-valley dose ratio of a microbeam array can be measured by fluorescence of PRESAGE dosimeters. Peak-to-valley dose ratios are calculated using this new technique and also by EBT2 film.
MOS structures fabricated on high-resistivity n-type silicon are irradiated by 12 keV X-rays to doses between 10 kGy and 1 GGy, and the radiation-induced oxide charges and interface traps are characterized and their densities determined.
Open access
A Monte Carlo simulation is presented, which computes the rate correction factors taking into account the detector settings and the time structure of the X-ray beam. The results show good agreement with experimentally determined correction factors.
Open access
A laser-based heating system has been developed at the TOMCAT beamline of the Swiss Light Source for in situ observations of moderate-to-high-temperature applications of materials.
Open access
The spatial resolution of a single-photon-resolving integrating system has been improved using a non-linear charge interpolation approach. The resolution limit for a 20 µm-pitch sensor is presented.
Aspherical surface shapes (Cartesian oval, ellipse and parabola) to focus X-ray beams are discussed, and their performances in a synchrotron beamline are simulated.
The performance of bent crystal Laue optics for fluorescence analysis is quantitatively measured, and the implications for the signal-to-noise ratio in X-ray absorption fine-structure spectroscopic measurements are assessed.
Diamond transmission-mode white-beam position monitors installed at undulator beamline X25 at the National Synchrotron Light Source are described.
Open access
The commissioning studies and an application to a uranium compound with the helicity-switching mode of a new twin-helical undulator installed in soft X-ray beamline BL23SU at SPring-8 are described.
The structural origin of experimental XANES is identified using self-consistent multiple-scattering methods. The spectral contributions of different coordination shells is characterized using path expansion calculations.
An in situ spectroelectrochemical cell is presented, which allows the investigation of electrochemical and chemical/structural properties by simultaneous electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and X-ray absorption near-edge spectroscopy, at temperatures of up to ∼1073 K and in the presence of relevant gases and under polarization. The cell was used to study a solid oxide fuel cell with a lanthanum strontium cobaltite ferrite cathode.
The design and implementation of some new optics that allow X-ray reflectivity measurements from liquid surfaces on beamline I07 at Diamond Light Source are described. The design allows for easy combination with complementary off-specular techniques and is tunable over the energy range 10–28 keV.
The QEXAFS monochromator of the SAMBA beamline is presented; one example on a bimetallic catalyst illustrates its capability to quickly alternate the measurement of two far absorption edges by `edge jumping'.
short communications
A new method to improve the accuracy of the image processing for the fabrication of thick multilayer optics is described.
An optimization design of a side-cooling scheme for a mirror at the Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility (SSRF) is presented.
A fully automated high-throughput solution X-ray scattering data collection system, developed for protein structure studies at beamline 4-2 of the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource, is described.
beamlines
The small-molecule single-crystal diffraction beamline (I19) at Diamond Light Source is described. Key technical details are explained and some recent scientific results are highlighted.
Open access
The three macromolecular crystallography beamlines BL14.1, BL14.2 and BL14.3 at the BESSY II storage ring at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin are described.
Beamline AR-NW12A: high-throughput beamline for macromolecular crystallography at the Photon Factory
A description of the high-throughput AR-NW12A beamline at the Photon Factory is presented, together with new developments.
The current status and future plans of the highly intense and tunable structural biology beamline ID29 at the ESRF, Grenoble, is presented.
computer programs
Open access
It has been difficult, historically, to manage and maintain early-stage experimental data collected by structural biologists in synchrotron facilities. This work describes a prototype system that adapts existing federated cyberinfrastructure technology and techniques to manage collected data at synchrotrons and to facilitate the efficient and secure transfer of data to the owner's home institution.
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