BL 12.3.2. is a superconducting magnet X-ray microdiffraction (or micro X-ray diffraction) beamline facility at the Advanced Light Source of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL).

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Beamline News:

July 24, 2017: ALS Science Brief: The Ancient Roman Secret to Concrete Resilience in Seawater.

July 3, 2017: LBNL News Center: New Studies of Ancient Concrete Could Teach Us to Do as the Romans Did.

May 11, 2017: ALS Science Highlight: Strain Turns Tin into a 3D Topological Dirac Semimetal.

April 20, 2017: ALS Science Brief: New Insights into Nanoscale Deformation.

March 27, 2017: ALS Science Brief: Ancient Ocean Temperatures Recorded in Mother-of-Pearl.

December 9, 2016: ALS Science Brief: X-Rays Help Evaluate Quality of 3D-Printed Repairs.

September 23, 2016: LBNL News Center: Scientists Find Twisting 3-D Raceway for Electrons in Nanoscale Crystal Slices.

August 10, 2016: ALS Science Brief: Improving Alloy Memory by Tuning Material Composition.

May 23, 2016: Characterization of highly reversible phase transformation is the Featured Article and front cover of this week issue of Applied Physics Letters.

February 4, 2016: New ALS Science Brief: Conduction Along Magnetic Interfaces Could Improve Memory Devices. Read the story here.

December 17, 2014: Beamline highlight on ifls: roman concrete insight could help build a safer world. Read the story here.

May 13, 2014: Beamline highlight on Sci_News: rare iron oxide found in ancient chinese pottery. Read the story here. Also in here.

January 22, 2014: Beamline highlight on Phys.org: mapping strain and crack propagation in metal tubing. Read the story here.

October 17, 2013: Beamline highlight: Concrete Industry benefits from Ancient Romans. Read the story here.

September 25, 2013: ALS Science Highlight: Learning from Roman Seawater Concrete.

July 25, 2013: Beamline highlight: ALS Gives Chevron Scientists New Insights into Corrosion Resistance. Read the story here.

July 24, 2013: The new phase mapping capability has now been implemented in XMAS... Test case on a three phases sample. Top left: resulting phase distribution map (red: quartz, green: pyrite, blue:chalcopyrite), top right: orientation map. Image: fluorescence maps of iron and copper for sanity check... (courtesy: Andrea Gerson)

June 21, 2013: Beamline highlight: Enabling Thin Silicon Solar Cell Technology. Read the story here.

November 28, 2012: CISCO Systems uses BL 12.3.2 for their research on tin whiskers, read the story here.

Beamline 12.3.2 overview

X-ray diffraction is a powerful experimental technique that is routinely used to investigate the structural properties of materials. We use x-rays focused to a spot size of one micron or less to perform x-ray diffraction experiments with very high spatial resolution. X-ray microdiffraction is providing new insights in the fields of material, energy and environmental sciences. The ALS X-ray microdiffraction facility has undergone a major upgrade in 2007 with its move from the bending magnet end-station 7.3.3. to the superbend beamline 12.3.2. The move was made possible through a NSF grant headed by the Iowa State University. The new end-station with its enhanced capabilities including brighter beam, smaller spot size, better strain sensitivity and broader energy range is now operational.

Why use synchrotron x-ray microdiffraction?

- Materials properties such as strength and fatigue resistance are highly dependent on microstructure. X-ray microdiffraction can measure local variations in stress, orientation, and plastic deformation between grains and within individual grains, helping us understand mechanical properties at this critical length scale.

- In microelectronics and related industries, the dimensions of the constitutive devices range from a few microns to submicron. Confinement and interfaces make thin film mechanical properties drastically different than bulk materials. With x-ray microdiffraction, we can measure local characteristics such as texture and stress within individual devices, offering an experimental counterpart to computer simulations.

- Samples such as soils are highly complex and are a challenge for spatially resolved characterization. X-ray microdiffraction allows for structural identification of small amounts of phases embedded in a heterogeneous matrix.

For questions and comments about this site, contact Nobumichi Tamura