Light Sources 101

Abstract

This tutorial is tailored for students and postdocs, including those who have no prior exposure to synchrotron experiments. It provides a broad introductory overview of the science one can perform at the ALS with an emphasis on some of the experimental techniques, from photoemission and spectroscopy to scattering and imaging. Each topic will include a general introduction to the technique(s) and examples of applications highlighting the capabilities of the ALS beamlines. There will also be content related to the Molecular Foundry, a nanoscale research facility located steps away from the ALS at LBNL, which enables synergistic research in a single trip.

Anyone can perform experiments at the ALS for free, and access to this facility is through a beamtime proposal process. As such, there will be a session about how to become a user of the ALS and obtain beamtime, including guidance about how to write a proposal and how proposals are evaluated.

This is the place to ask all the questions you have about a particular technique and how to successfully apply it to your scientific project! Students with no/limited prior synchrotron experience are particularly encouraged to attend.

Agenda (Monday September 11th, 2023)

8:00 am

Registration (building 91), Continental Breakfast

Walk to building 15-253

8:30 am

Welcome from ALS director (Dimitri Argyriou)

8:40 am

General capabilities at synchrotrons – what ALS specializes in (Andreas Scholl)

8:55 am

The machine (Simon Leemann)

9:25 am

Small group tours of the storage ring (Simon Leemann, Changchun Sun, Cindy Lee)

10:00 am

Spectroscopy: Soft X-ray photon-in-photon-out core-level spectroscopy - XAS & RIXS (Wanli Yang)

flashtalks: Gi-Hyeok Lee, Zengqing Zhuo

10:30 am

Spectroscopy: Angle Resolved Photoemission Spectroscopy (Chris Jozwiak) 

flashtalk: Shanmei He 

11:00 am

Spectroscopy: Ambient pressure XPS (Slavo Nemsak) 

flashtalks: Maximilian Jaugstetter, Quinn Carvalho

11:30 am

Spectroscopy: Coherent x-ray scattering, X-ray Photon Correlation Spectroscopy (Sophie Morley) 

flashtalk: Ahmad Ikhwan Us Saleheen

noon

lunch break, building 15-253

1:00 pm

Spectroscopy: Synchrotron IR - what is it good for? (Stephanie Gilbert Corder) 

flashtalk:  Aleksandr Razumtcev

1:30 pm

Scattering: SAXS/WAXS (Chenhui Zhu)

flashtalks: Aidan Coffey, Yunfei Wang

2:00 pm

Microscopy: 3D imaging with microCT (Dula Parkinson) 

flashtalks: Liz Clark, Hasitha Wijesuriya

2:30 pm

Microscopy: STXM+ptychography (David Shapiro) 

flashtalks: Thomas Feggeler

3:00 pm

Break

3:10 pm

Machine Learning: Tools for data-driven synchrotron-based research (Tanny Chavez Esparza)

3:30 pm

ALS + You: panel discussion on synchrotron + university research lab collaboration programs, examples of recent R&D highlights and ongoing/planned/possible R&D activities taking advantage of ALS-U

Panelists: Wanli Yang, Aidan Coffey, David Shapiro, Zixuan Li

4:00 pm

Panel Discussion: How to become a user (+ general proposal submission/review process); getting involved in national lab research; ALS-U Q&A

How to approach a beamline scientist; how to plan synchrotron experiments efficiently

Panelists: Andi Jones, Chenhui Zhu, Dula Parkinson, Chris Jozwiak

5:00 pm

Conclusion Day 1