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

     

    September 2006  

     

    APS accelerator operations were shut down during the entire month of September for scheduled maintenance. The NE-CAT staff used this down period to perform maintenance work on all the beam lines as well as continue installation activities on the Phase 2 beam line.

     

    24-ID Phase 1 Beam Line User Operations

    During the 2006-2 run, it was observed that the monochromater second crystal temperature was continually rising. It was believed that this temperature rise was due to corrosion taking place at the gallium-indium alloy interface between the silicon crystal and the liquid-nitrogen cooling block. To correct this problem, an entirely new designed cooling block was installed with a different crystal clamping method. In fabricating this new cooling block, particular attention was paid to achieving a very flat surface (flatness to within a few microns) and nickel plating the surface to insure good even contact with a non-chemically active surface.

    At the end of September, the Phase 1 beam line was ready for restart of APS machine operations on October 3.

     

    24-ID Phase 2 Fixed-Energy Beam Line Installation

    Installation is proceeding on a fast pace. During the September shutdown period the detector support installation was finished and the detector drive mechanisms tested and calibrated. The in-vacuum beam position monitor was installed between the photon shutter and the horizontally focusing mirror and much of the remainder of beam optics control hardware and cabling installed.

     

    24-BM Phase 3 Bending Magnet Beam Line

    With installation of Phase 2 expected to be completed within a few months, effort will become available to begin installation of the instrumentation for the Sector 24 bending magnet beam line. During the month of October we will formally terminate operation of the Sector 8-BM bending magnet beam line and begin shortly thereafter installing its components into the already completed Sector 24-BM radiation enclosures. We have already informed APS of this move and received their approval to proceed. Installing the 8-BM components at Sector 24 will provide NE-CAT users with a number of advantages. The optical train will be changed to provide a de-magnification factor of 2.8, providing a much tighter needed focus at the target position. The major components, which have now been in continual use for more than five years, will be refurbished to improve reliability. The Console control system will be upgraded to the most recent version, providing new features and improved reliability. By co-locating all NE-CAT beam lines together (the current 8-BM beam line is half way around the ring) the provision of support staff assistance to users will be much more efficient. Also, vacating Sector 8-BM will result in a significant cost saving now paid for space related costs.

     

     

     

    © 2005 Northeastern Collaborative Access Team

    Webmaster: Cyndi Salbego