Workshop on First Experiments at NSLS-II

July 30, 2013

beamlines enlarge

To encourage the development of early science at the National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II), the Photon Sciences Directorate is hosting the NSLS-II First-Experiments Workshop, August 12-13, 2013. We welcome to this workshop the broad community of light source users, as well as all who are interested in photon sciences.

As many of you know, we are now about 90 percent complete in constructing NSLS-II. Some of the beamlines are scheduled to begin commissioning as early as July 2014, with first commissioning experiments to follow later that year and in 2015.

We have organized similar workshops focused on early science at NSLS-II, but the August workshop will be our most comprehensive to date.

Day one will start with morning talks on key research fields – condensed matter physics, biological systems and materials science – followed by an update on early scientific capabilities at an initial suite of NSLS-II beamlines. During the afternoon of day one and all of day two, parallel sessions will promote more detailed discussions about potential first experiments at these first beamlines.

Specifically, workshop participants will be asked to accomplish the following:

  • Identify key research projects and the associated experiments that may be conducted at the initial suite of NSLS-II beamlines. Emphasis should be placed on projects that will take advantage of NSLS-II properties.
  • Facilitate the formation of research teams to generate first-experiment proposals.
  • Identify key team members in such areas as theory and analysis, ancillary measurements, and specimen preparation.

We recently posted on the PS website the first in a series of articles on beamline construction for the initial set of beamlines around the NSLS-II experimental floor. You can find more information on this set of beamlines online:

These first beamlines are expected to provide a significant capacity early in NSLS-II operations. This will allow us to explore the unique scientific opportunities offered by the new facility. Within a few years of the start of NSLS-II operations in 2015, we expect that additional beamlines will enter into operations, with about 60 percent of the available straight sections and roughly 33 percent of the available bending-magnet, three-pole-wiggler, and infrared ports occupied. This increased capacity will help expand scientific capabilities at NSLS-II and accommodate the wide-ranging research programs of the user community at the existing NSLS, operating now for more than 30 years.

When fully built out, NSLS-II will hold more than 58 beamlines using 27 straight sections for insertion-device sources and 31 bending-magnet or three-pole-wiggler sources, with additional beamlines possible through canted insertion devices and multiple branches. All these capabilities will take time to realize. But with the help of our user community, we are working hard to identify funding sources to develop and operate more beamlines.

— Qun Shen

2013-4176  |  INT/EXT  |  Newsroom