With the upgrade we will get both high resolution and a broad field of view. “Currently, you can only see one small part of a material, and it takes a long time. With the increased brightness we will be able to look at the whole picture.” It goes from a nanosecond with atoms diffusing in a local environment all the way up to macroscopic changes in the battery over days, weeks or even years. “Think about exploring the electrochemistry in a battery. Streiffer said it was essential that the new X-ray source enables measurements across multiple physical and time scales. (Image by Tyler Malas / Argonne National Laboratory.) A total of 1,321 magnets will be installed during the upgrade. Magnet Measurement Technician Gentillo Curescu with an array of magnets for the APS-U in Building 369. Lang said it will go from something like a spotlight that produces a broad wash of light to something much more like a laser.Īccording to Stephen Streiffer, deputy laboratory director for science and technology, interim associate laboratory director for Photon Sciences, and director of the APS, coherence is especially important: “High-energy X-rays that are ultra-bright with very high coherence will allow us experiments in real environments, not just model environments.” Experiments that were previously impossible to perform in a realistic amount of time will now be conducted in minutes to hours.”Īnother major enhancement involves beam coherence, which relates to how ordered the X-ray light is. Both are fast, but it is two very different kinds of speed. “It’s like going from Usain Bolt, a world-record holding track and field sprinter known for being one of the fastest men on Earth, to an F-15 fighter aircraft. “That’s hard for anyone to really imagine,” Kerby said. The brightness of the X-rays will be up to 500 times greater than the current machine, said Kerby, and will significantly improve performance. As part of the upgrade, the existing 1.1-kilometer circular storage ring will be replaced and X-ray beamlines and other equipment will be updated, creating a vastly more powerful X-ray facility and brighter X-ray production. It produces extremely bright X-rays that can peer through dense materials and illuminate the structure and chemistry of matter at the molecular and atomic level. The APS works like a giant X-ray microscope. (Image by Gary Zinkann / Argonne National Laboratory.) “From Usain Bolt to an F-15”Īccelerator physicist and group leader Michael Kelly works on a bunch lengthening radiofrequency system for the APS-U project. It will be transformational,” said Jonathan Lang, the APS X-ray Science Division ( XSD) director. “The APS Upgrade will allow us to conduct new experiments that we can barely even imagine right now. “How do we create a facility that continues to provide opportunities for work that can’t be done anywhere else?”Īs the APS readies to undergo an $815 million upgrade that will, as early as late-2023, enable science at a completely new and unprecedented scale, the APS team at Argonne and the thousands of researchers it supports are excitedly looking ahead - even if nobody can completely know the full range of scientific opportunities that await. “After 25 years, the challenge is how do we continue to make the APS an interesting and useful place for researchers?” asked Jim Kerby, chief project officer for the APS Upgrade ( APS-U), who came to Argonne to help answer that question. (Image by Rick Fenner / Argonne National Laboratory.) Kris Meitsner of the APS Engineering Support division Survey and Alignment group tests a quadrupole magnet at Building 369 for installation as part of the APS-U. Yet while the APS is still one of the preeminent research facilities of its kind, the electron storage ring that is at its heart was designed beginning in the late 1980s and, as groundbreaking as it was at the time, now relies on dated technology. It will be transformational.” - Jonathan Lang, the APS X-ray Science Division ( XSD) director Such work makes clear the ongoing importance of X-ray light sources, like the APS, in solving critical problems for our world. Its beamlines are involved in research to both identify the protein structures of the virus and find potential pharmaceutical treatments and/or vaccines. Most recently, the APS is making significant contributions in the fight against COVID-19. Research conducted at the APS has also directly led to two Nobel Prizes, and contributed to a third. An upgrade is underway that will make the APS a global leader among the next generation of storage-ring based, high-energy X-ray light sources giving researchers a vastly more powerful tool and opening new frontiers in science.
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