XMaS Capital Equipment Upgrade

同步辐射（SR）源通过在磁晶格周围以高能量加速电子来提供明亮的光束。由此产生的x射线为探索材料的结构、组成和激发提供了一个独特而有力的工具。新的磁体和真空技术意味着现在可以设计存储环，使x射线束的亮度（在指定带宽内单位面积每单位立体角的通量）和相干性大大提高。XMaS （x射线材料科学）束线设施是欧洲同步辐射设施（ESRF）的一部分，该设施于2020年底完成了其升级计划的最后阶段，即极亮源（EBS）项目。在EBS升级的同时，XMaS的光束线也经历了升级，特别是在x射线源和x射线光学系统的重新设计中，这导致了可用于实验的x射线能量范围的显著增加。新的x射线源也导致聚焦在样品位置的x射线束的尺寸减小。这一升级的结果意味着实验现在可以以出色的空间和时间分辨率进行，为一系列x射线方法开辟了新的可能性，这些方法可以同时应用于探测复杂样品环境中材料的结构和功能。能力的提升允许在广泛的能量范围内，在相同的样品环境中，在原子逐点的基础上研究相同的小样本量，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。该设施将为医疗保健和量子临界行为提供新的见解，并促进对真实设备中的限制和接近的研究。更多的系统将在操作和技术相关条件下进行研究。更高的x射线能量现在允许在复杂的样品环境中研究埋藏界面，包括与电化学技术相关的固液界面和与催化相关的固气界面。本提案中所要求的设备专门用于支持这些领域的研究。XMaS是一个使能工具，为英国材料科学研究基础设施提供了重要组成部分，确保英国研究人员现在和未来都能获得最先进的仪器、专业知识和技术。通过提供一个基本的容量层和独特的功能，XMaS通过在一系列时间和空间长度尺度上实现x射线特征，促进了研究人员主导的研究。此外，通过培训学生和早期职业研究人员，XMaS为更广泛的材料研究基地提供了高技能的个人。与国家研究中心和国际合作者的合作关系确保了英国材料行业未来的竞争力、弹性和创造力，这依赖于新型功能材料的开发、表征和利用。XMaS的科学平衡既包括长期的以发现为导向的研究，也包括短期的以影响为重点的研究，从而为变革和挑战为导向的材料科学研究提供了一个环境。

Synchrotron radiation (SR) sources provide brilliant beams of light by accelerating electrons at high energies around a magnetic lattice. The resulting X-rays provide a uniquely powerful tool in the exploration of structure, composition and excitations in materials. 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. The XMaS (X-ray Materials Science) beamline facility is part of the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) which, in late 2020, completed the final phase of its upgrade programme, the extremely bright source (EBS) project. In parallel with the EBS upgrade, the XMaS beamline also went through an upgrade particularly in the redesign of the X-ray source and X-ray optics which led to a significant increase in the energy range of the X-rays that can be used for experiments. The new X-ray source also led to a decrease in the size of the X-ray beam that is focussed onto the sample position. The result of this upgrade means that experiments can now be performed with outstanding spatial and temporal resolution opening up new possibilities across a range of X-ray methodologies which can be simultaneously applied to probe the structure and function of materials in complex sample environments. The uplift in capability allows the study of the same small sample volume across an extensive energy range and within the same sample environment on an atomic 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 healthcare and quantum critical behaviour as well as facilitating studies of confinement and proximity in real devices. More systems will be studied operando and under technologically relevant conditions. The higher X-ray energies now available allow studies of buried interfaces in complex sample environments including solid-liquid interfaces relevant to electrochemical technologies and solid-gas interfaces relevant to catalysis. The equipment requested in this proposal is specifically targeted to support these areas of research.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 encompasses 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.