Advances in x-ray science go hand-in-hand with innovations in instrumentation and the new measurement capabilities they enable. The ALS has a strong tradition of instrumentation innovations leading to new scientific capabilities and vibrant user communities built around unique tools. In recent years, our instrumentation efforts have been propelled by the coming ALS Upgrade project and unique opportunities shaped by the vision and foresight of our scientific staff and user community. The ALS Photon Science Development group (PSD) supports a spectrum of small and large instrumentation projects focused on user science and the development of optical and instrumentation technologies connected to the advancement of our field.
Major recent instrumentation projects undertaken by PSD include the innovative QERLIN RIXS beamline, an upgrade to the MERLIN beamline’s optical systems and photon diagnostics, an upgrade of the COSMIC M1 mirror system, the Nanosurveyor2 and Nanosurveyor3 endstation upgrades, spin-coater development for the scattering program, and more. In addition, PSD develops optomechanical and power-management systems for x-ray mirror, grating, and crystal stability and cooling; new sample environments and transfer capabilities that promote multimodal measurements and increasing degrees of beamline automation.
With every new project, we are driving experimental system instrumentation toward an increasing integration of controls and data collection, setting the stage for advances in autonomous experiments, high-data-volume analysis, real-time data visualization and interpretation, and multimodal experiments based on machine learning and analysis across tools and disciplines.
