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User Forum Series on the ALS Upgrade

On December 6, the second in a series of online ALS user forums was held on the Advanced Light Source Upgrade (ALS-U) project. Presentations included an overview of the project and its current status, progress on designs for concept beamlines and optics, and ideas for the future of earth and environmental sciences research at the ALS. The next forum will be held Monday, January 22 at 10 a.m. PT. Read more »

Studying Gas Mask Filters So People Can Breathe Easier

Scientists have put the x-ray spotlight on composite materials in respirators used by the military, police, and first responders. The results provide reassuring news about the effectiveness of current filters and provide fundamental information that could lead to more advanced gas masks as well as protective gear for civilian applications. Read more »

Former ALS Operations Deputy “Banda” Receives Berkeley Lab Citation

Banda, ALS senior advisor and former ALS operations deputy, was presented the Berkeley Lab Citation at the 2017 Director’s Awards for Exceptional Achievement ceremony. The Citation recognizes extraordinary achievements in broad categories of science and operations, with special focus on service to the Lab and/or the DOE national lab complex. Read more »

Notification of General User Proposal Results

The Proposal Study Panel (PSP) met on October 20 to oversee and finalize the scoring of General User Proposals for the 2018-1 January–July operating cycle and to make recommendations to the ALS Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) on Approved Program applications. Beam time allocations for General User Proposals are completed, and users have been notified to view the results by logging in to ALSHub. Approved Program results will be announced shortly. Read more »

ALS Director Roger Falcone Says Farewell

When I joined the Advanced Light Source 11 years ago, I came with limited understanding of ALS, but with great respect and admiration for both the facility and its staff from my time as a user. I wanted to learn and see how I could help, and it has been a wonderful experience. Read more »

A New Way to Tune Emergent Magnetism

Perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA)—where magnetic moments in a thin film preferentially point out of the plane of the film—is an emergent phenomenon of both fundamental and technological interest. A combination of x-ray techniques demonstrate how to tune PMA in transition-metal oxide multilayers. Read more »PPT-icon-35 PDF-icon-35

Dmitriy Voronov Receives Klaus Halbach Award

The 2017 Klaus Halbach Award for Innovative Instrumentation at the ALS was recently awarded to ALS Staff Scientist Dmitriy Voronov “for pioneering work in the area of advanced x-ray gratings.” The research that led up to Voronov’s award began about 10 years ago when he started at the ALS in the Experimental Systems Group with Howard Padmore. Read more »

Revealing the Blue Phase and Other Twisted Orders

Resonant soft x-ray scattering revealed liquid crystal structures that cannot be probed using diffraction, including chiral liquid crystal systems such as the “blue phase” and the twist-bend nematic phase. Information on how individual molecules form functional structures in these systems is key to developing new applications. Read more »

Sol Omolayo, Vacuum Systems Engineering Lead

Sol Omolayo joined the ALS about a year ago and has been enjoying the challenge of being part of the design team for the ALS Upgrade project, ALS-U, as well as applying his vacuum engineering expertise to current ALS operations. Read more »