Acquisition of Hardware for a Scanning Transmission X-ray Microscope Dedicated to Synthetic and Natural Polymer Research and Education

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9975694AdeThis award will provide partial support for the acquisition of components to build a scanning transmission X-Ray microscope (STXM) facility dedicated to polymer science and engineering projects at the Advanced Light Source (ALS). This facility will be the sole endstation at an optimized bending magnet beamline. It will increase instrument time for polymer applications at least 4 fold. At least 25% of instrument time will be provided to qualified independent investigators through a peer reviewed competition administrated by the ALS. The ALS has agreed to spend considerable resources ($550,000) to provide the synchrotron beamline/monochromator. The beamline optics design has been completed. A novel design in which the zone plate rather than the sample is scanned to form the image has been developed. A stationary sample, with minimal constraints imposed by fine scan requirements, will more easily facilitate the heating, cooling, rotating and stretching of the samples. Interferometric encoding which will improve the stability and spatial resolution achievable in spectroscopic mode, and will improve the registration of images acquired at different energies will be implemented. More efficient detectors will be added, as well as an indexing sample stage, and on-line data analysis, and a novel higher-order-suppressor as new features. Together, these aspects will make the polymer-STXM significantly more capable and user-friendly than existing instruments.The "revolutionary" approach of coupling to a bending magnet will significantly lower the necessary investment from about $4,000,000 for the undulator and its beamline to about $550,000 for a bending magnet beamline. Since there are still plenty of unused bending magnet sources at various third generation synchrotron facilities, the potential for developing or constructing additional STXMs without the need for new synchrotron radiation sources improves dramatically.All participating academic institutions have substantial research and education programs supported from many sources. As a unique and complex piece of instrumentation, the new Polymer STXM facility will substantially enrich the education of students.%%%This facility will significantly advance the fields of polymer science and engineering, and train a new generation of scientists and engineers in x-ray microscopy techniques. There is a world-wide shortage of personnel with expertise in this field.***