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New beamline, BL-15A, was completed at the BL-15 section of the PF-ring in 2014. This new beamline has a short gap undulator which produces high brilliance X-rays ranging from 2.1 keV to 15 keV. The beamline will be dedicated to both activities, XAFS/XRF/XRD studies using semi-micro focus beams (A1 station) and SAXS experiments using collimated softer and hard X-rays (A2 station). In the XAFS/XRF studies, the semi-micro beam available in a wide range of photon energies allows analyzing the local structures of the elements and valence on inhomogeneous samples in the fields of environmental science and new energy source science. The softer X-rays up to 2.1 keV will provide access to absorption edges of phosphor and sulfur, which are very important targets for those fields. The SAXS scientific programs include structural studies of functional membranes, time-resolved X-ray scattering and large hierarchical structure analysis. All of these three programs require a high-brilliance light source. In particular, grazing incidence SAXS (GI-SAXS) using vertically small-size softer beam ranging between 2.1-3.0 keV will help to control the depth of the membrane structure analysis and reduce the roughness defects of an imperfect membrane. The combination of XAFS/XRF and SAXS experiments gives wide structural information from fine atomic structure to low and medium resolution. It can be beneficial to build these instruments as two stations on the same beamline. BL-15A is oriented toward joint advanced studies by the two techniques. Old BL-15 beamlines were scrapped and new construction work started in 2013. The construction was completed in the summer shutdown of 2013 and the first beams was delivered on Oct 17, 2013. We are pursuing the beamline commissioning and the A1 and A2 stations will be opened to users in May, 2014. Here, the beamline design and performance, and the preliminary results will be reported.
abstracts
Three small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) beamlines, BL-6A, BL-10C and new BL-15A2 are available at the Japanese synchrotron facility, Photon Factory (PF). We are recently improving and upgrading the SAXS beamlines at the PF in order to support new measurements and construct a high-throughput experimental system. BL-6A is a bending magnet beamline and the wavelength is fixed at 1.5 angstrom. This beamline had two detectors, PILAUS 300K (Dectris) for SAXS/GI-SAXS and PILATUS 100K (Dectris) for WAXD experiment, respectively, and the simultaneous measurement using these detectors are available. We installed a new experimental stage and replaced PILATUS 300K with PILATUS3 1M in this March. Therefore, the range of an applicable camera length spread to 0.25 ~ 2.5 m, and the detectable angle area expanded in the small-angle region. BL-10A is also a bending magnet beamline and the wavelength has been fixed at 1.488 angstrom. We replaced almost all the optical and experimental components of this beamline with new ones in this March. A fixed-exit double-crystal monochromator, a focusing mirror and a mirror bender were newly installed in this beamline. We will be able to change the energy from 6 to 14 keV. Although the photon flux at the sample position will not change after this upgrade, the area of the beam at the focal point will decrease to 40 % on the basis of the raytracing calculation. The camera length spread from 2 m to 3m in a new experimental stage with the camera tube. PILATUS3 2M and 200K (Dectris) were also installed as a detector. The commissioning will be started from this May, and the beamline will be re-opened from this June. In order to control all new devices and make the user-operation easier, we newly developed GUI software for the beamline control and the experiment. We are also developing the solution sample mixer and changer at BL-15A2 for the high-throughput Bio-SAXS measurement. We will present the current status of these beamline refurbishment.
