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 »
ALSNews Vol. 389
December 7, 2017
Coral Exoskeleton Growth Begins Inside Living Tissue
Researchers have discovered some good news regarding corals: the mechanism by which their exoskeletons grow may help them resist the effects of ocean acidification. The discovery, made with PEEM studies, has ramifications not only for the health of coral reefs, but for applications such as 3D printing as well. 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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
Natalie Larson Awarded Neville Smith Student Poster Prize
Natalie Larson, a current ALS doctoral fellow from UC Santa Barbara, won the first prize Neville B. Smith Student Poster Award at the 2017 ALS User Meeting. Larson’s winning poster featured the first two big in situ experiments she performed at Beamline 8.3.2. 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 »
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 »
New Users’ Executive Committee Members Elected
Three newly elected members will join the Users’ Executive Committee (UEC) in January: Alex Frañó (UC San Diego), Ashley Head (Berkeley Lab, soon to be Brookhaven National Lab), and Jay Nix (Berkeley Lab). To view the latest UEC updates and current membership, visit the UEC website. Read more »