XMaS: The UK Materials Science Facility at the ESRF

同步辐射(SR)源通过在圆形磁晶格周围以高能加速电子来提供明亮的光束。由此产生的X射线在探索材料的结构、组成和激发方面提供了一个独特的强大工具。几十年来，英国一直站在SR条款的前列，于1981年建造了世界上第一个专用设施。在欧洲同步辐射设备(ESRF)上作为晶格的一部分首次引入插入器件，然后在钻石光源(DLS)上将其整合到新的磁晶格中，提高了通量和光束质量，极大地增加了SR在物理和生命科学投资组合中的影响。新的磁铁和真空技术意味着，存储环现在可以被设计成提供亮度(在指定带宽内每单位固体角度的单位面积的通量)和相干性大大增加的X射线束。这些变革性的设计正在重新定义SR景观，所有主要设施都计划升级到这种晶格技术。XMAS(X射线材料科学)光束线设施是ESRF的一部分，ESRF将在2019年进行升级计划(EBS项目)的最后阶段，安装一个超低发射度存储环。在EBS升级后，由于聚焦光束尺寸较小，XMAS光束线在大多数实验中的可用通量将增加一个数量级以上。新的源特性还允许使用更高的X射线能量，并扩大了目前可以解决的科学挑战。这将是第一次有可能在广泛的能量范围内和在相同的样品环境中研究相同的样品体积。这将使实时反应能够逐个地点进行跟踪，为研究与催化和绿色化学应用相关的材料开辟了新的机会。该设施将为量子临界行为提供新的见解，并促进对低温(1-10K)下磁性和超导材料的限制和接近的研究。新组合的X射线计量学使人们能够同时测量各种长度和时间尺度的结构。更多的系统将在运行中和在技术相关的条件下进行研究，例如，研究电池系统和光伏系统中的离子迁移。结构研究将成为空间分辨率的研究，允许研究单个区域及其在外部刺激下的时间演变。~33keV的高能量将扩展对复杂样品环境中埋藏界面的研究，例如与电化学技术相关的固-液界面。包括电场和磁场以及湿度、气体大气和温度控制(1至1200K)在内的外部刺激都将可用。XMaS是一种使能工具，它提供了英国材料科学研究基础设施的重要组成部分，确保英国研究人员能够获得现在和未来最先进的仪器、专业知识和技术。通过提供基本的能力层和独特的能力，XMAS通过在一系列时间和空间长度尺度上实现X射线表征，促进了研究人员领导的研究。此外，通过培训学生和早期职业研究人员，圣诞为更广泛的材料研究基地提供高技能的人才。与国家研究中心和国际合作者的伙伴关系确保了英国材料部门未来的竞争力、弹性和创造力，该部门依赖于新型功能材料的开发、表征和开发。圣诞节的科学平衡将既包括长期的以发现为导向的研究，也包括以短期影响为重点的研究，从而为变革性的、以挑战为导向的材料科学研究提供一个环境。

Synchrotron radiation (SR) sources provide brilliant beams of light by accelerating electrons at high energies around a circular magnetic lattice. The resulting X-rays provide a uniquely powerful tool in the exploration of structure, composition and excitations in materials. The UK has been at the forefront of SR provision for decades, building the world's first dedicated facility in 1981. Insertion devices, first introduced as part of the lattice at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) and then incorporated into the new magnetic lattice at the Diamond Light Source (DLS), increased the flux and beam quality, greatly increasing the impact of SR across the physical and life-science portfolios. New magnets and vacuum technologies mean that storage rings can now be designed to give X-ray beams with hugely increased brilliance (flux per unit area per unit solid angle in a specified bandwidth) and coherence. These transformative designs are redefining the SR landscape with all major facilities planning upgrades to this lattice technology.The XMaS (X-ray Materials Science) beamline facility is part of the ESRF which, in 2019, undergoes the final phase of its upgrade programme (EBS project) with the installation of an ultra-low emittance storage ring. After the EBS upgrade the XMaS beamline will have more than an order of magnitude increase in usable flux for most experiments due to a smaller focused beam size. The new source characteristics also allow higher X-ray energies to be used and expand the scientific challenges that can currently be addressed. For the first time, it will be possible to study the same sample volume across an extensive energy range and within the same sample environment. This will enable real time reactions to be followed on a site-by-site basis, opening up new opportunities for studying materials relevant to catalysis and green chemistry applications. The facility will deliver new insights into quantum critical behaviour as well as facilitating studies of confinement and proximity in magnetic and superconducting materials at low temperatures (1-10 K). Newly combined X-ray metrologies enable structure to be measured across a wide range of length and time scales simultaneously. More systems will be studied in-operando and under technologically relevant conditions, for example, the study of ionic migration in battery systems and photovoltaics. Structural studies will become spatially resolved allowing studies of individual domains and their temporal evolution under external stimuli. An upper energy of ~33 keV will extend studies of buried interfaces in complex sample environments, for example, solid-liquid interfaces, relevant to electrochemical technologies. External stimuli including electrical and magnetic fields as well as humidity, gaseous atmospheres and temperature control (1 to 1200 K) will all be available.XMaS is an enabling tool, and provides an essential part of the UK research infrastructure for material science ensuring that UK researchers have access to state-of-the-art instrumentation, expertise and techniques now and into the future. By providing an essential layer of capacity and unique capabilities, XMaS facilitates investigator-led research by enabling X-ray characterisation across a range of temporal and spatial length scales. In addition, by training students and early career researchers, XMaS provides highly skilled individuals to the wider materials research base. Partnerships with national research centres and international collaborators ensure the future competitiveness, resilience and creativity of the UK materials sector which relies on the development, characterisation and exploitation of novel functional materials. The balance of science on XMaS will encompass both long-term discovery-led research as well as shorter term impact-focused research thereby providing an environment for transformative, challenge-led material science research.