NECAT Beamline

The Northeastern Collaborative Access Team (NE-CAT) facility at the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory is managed by Cornell University and consists of seven member institutions:

  • Columbia University
  • Cornell University
  • Harvard University
  • Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Rockefeller University
  • Yale University.

    • Primary funding for this project comes from the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR), a division of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Additional financial support for NE-CAT comes from the member institutions.

    Status of NE-CAT Sector 24 Activities

     

    July 2006  

    24-ID Phase 1 Beam Line User Operations

    The Phase 1 beam line was fully utilized during July by research groups from six of the seven institutional member organizations as well as by ongoing development activities. The beam line continues to operate well with no down time and good beam stability. All users reported good productive experiences in their end-of-run summary forms.

    With the beam line operating very reliably during the past several APS run cycles and the institutional members reporting that they are pleased with the quality of operation and user support provided, we have notified APS that the NE-CAT Phase 1 beam line will be open to the APS General Users Program for the 2006-3 run cycle beginning October 3, 2006. A number of General Users have already requested beam time.

     

    24-ID Phase 2 Fixed-Energy Beam Line Installation

    At the beginning of the month, APS conducted measurements to formally verify that the 24-ID-E radiation enclosure has no radiation leaks. None were found. Therefore, with the radiation integrity of the end station enclosure 24-ID-E now approved by APS, installation of the optics and instrumentation has begun at a fast pace. To accurately establish the beam trajectory through the end station enclosure, the diffracted beam from the side-bounce monochromator was adjusted to be precisely 12.66 KeV and the b

    Beam path through the end station accurately measured. During these measurements, preliminary results indicated that the beam position was very stable within the accuracy of measurement, with no observable vertical fluctuations from floor vibrations, monochromator first crystal vibrations due to liquid nitrogen flow, etc. As can be seen from the following photograph, the support structures for the collimator assembly, the goniometry, the vacuum system, and the detector are currently being installed.

     

     

    Figure 1. 24-ID-E Phase 2 End Station Instrumentation Being Installed

     

    Baring any unforeseen difficulties, we anticipate that the entire end station will be nominally installed and preliminary commissioning of the optics with beam begun before the fall APS shut down for maintenance beginning August 25.

    Early in September, Oxford-Danfysik is scheduled to replace the entire monochromator roll cage assembly insuring more reliable motion of the Bragg axis as well as being able to more reliably perform vertical translations of the crystal mounting block placing either the Si 220 and Si 311 crystal in the beam, with individual fine adjustments of their Bragg angles. In this way x-ray beams at 12.66 and 14.78 KeV, respectively, will be provided for structural determinations.

     
     

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