An ever evolving facility for science

With the speed that synchrotron science has evolved over the past 30 years, it is no surprise that Diamond, which opened its doors just three years ago with seven operational beamlines, has been swift to expand. Already the number of beamlines that are online has risen to 17 and the Phase I beamlines are receiving upgrades to expand their capabilities. The facility is keen to ensure that it takes advantage of technological advances and the body of knowledge and experience that has built up among staff and external collaborators.

As the techniques on offer grow and evolve, Diamond News will keep you up to date with developments from the experimental hall floor.

2010 got off to a great start with Diamond taking delivery of a new instrument on the 8th January that will enhance the capabilities of the Surface and Interfaces research village, enabling more complicated and sensitive experiments.

The new diffractometer is known as RASOR (Reflectivity and Advanced Scattering for Ordered Regimes) and can be used to study strongly correlated electron systems by directly probing their magnetic, charge and orbital structures. This area of research can potentially provide fundamental knowledge that will assist in the pursuit of a new generation of electronic data storage equipment, such as ultra-fast memory devices.

Collaborators on the RASOR project were Durham University, STFC and Diamond itself. Funding was awarded by STFC to the Principal Investigators on the project, Prof. Peter Hatton (Durham) and Prof. Gerrit van der Laan (STFC/Diamond), through a facility development grant to design and construct RASOR. The project was coordinated by Dr Tom Beale, Post-Doctoral Reseach Associate with Durham University and STFC, from inception to successful commissioning.

Pictured with RASOR during its handover, from left to right: Prof. Chris Higgins (Vice-Chancellor), Prof. Brian Tanner, Dr Tom Beale and Prof. Peter Hatton from Durham University; and Prof. Sarnjeet Dhesi, Prof Gerrit Van der Laan and Dr Paul Steadman from Diamond

RASOR is a multipurpose end station that can be used for both diffraction and reflectivity techniques. It will be available on the Nanoscience beamline (I06) until October 2010, before moving to its permanent home – the beamline for Advanced Dichroism Experiments (BLADE, I10).

On the Materials and Magnetism beamline (I16), the team are designing a structure that will allow them to routinely attach the Pilatus 2M - a state-of-the-art large-area photon-counting detector - to the diffractometer. This will enable them to make much more effective use of the new detector technology and provide the platform for an integrated software solution.

There has also been a high level of activity on the Phase II beamlines. Developments include the High Resolution Powder Diffraction beamline (I11) now accepting proposals in Rapid Access Mode. The objective of this mode is to provide an administrative mechanism for the collection of powder diffraction data on samples that are timely and of potentially high scientific interest and whose measurement requires access to a short duration of beamtime (e.g. a few hours or less).

Enhancements are also taking place on the Non-Crystalline Diffraction beamline (I22), where a new microfocus end station and in-house designed monochromator are being installed to improve both the performance and the capabilities of this Phase II beamline. Microfocus experiments will enable users to either study very small samples, or to home in on tiny areas of much larger ones. The handling of tiny particles will be made possible following the development of optical tweezers (see Young Diamonds SET for Britain for details of this exciting project).

The Test beamline (B16), essentially a general purpose beamline, is now routinely providing microfocused beams to users, using the compound refractive X-ray lenses. The beamline has also been upgraded recently with the addition of a new double multilayer monochromator, which will provide further functionality to the beamline. This type of multilayer monochromator is the first of its kind on a Diamond beamline and therefore provides a unique complementary facility.

Four Phase II beamlines have welcomed their first users since September 2009. These are the Surfaces and Interface Diffraction beamline (I07), the Joint Engineering, Environment and Processing (JEEP) beamline (I12), the Fixed Wavelength MX beamline (I04-1), and the Infrared Microscopy Beamline (B22).

The Fixed Wavelength MX beamline welcomed first users at the end of last year when Dr Frank von Delft from the Structure Genomics Consortium (SGC) in Oxford used it to collect data from a protein kinase crystal. Protein kinases play important roles in regulating most cellular functions - proliferation/cell cycle, cell metabolism, survival/apoptosis, DNA damage repair, cell motility, response to the microenvironment.

Jose Brandao-Neto is Senior Beamline Scientist and project leader.

The first users on Diamond’s only Infrared (IR) beamline were from Keele University and the University Hospital of North Staffordshire.

Lead researcher Dr Josep Sulé-Suso, a lung cancer specialist, and his team used the beamline to study lung cancer cells. Being able to “see” inside a cancerous cell on such a microscopic scale helps scientists in their search for the characteristic markers of cancer, and in the future could provide an easier, quicker and more objective way to classify tumour development in patients.

The ultimate aim of this research is to find and set up a method that could be used in hospitals, which applies IR light to detect early signs of cancer as an aid to diagnosis. Being able to pick out cancer cells from healthy ones, before the cancer cells grow and form a tumour, would be a major breakthrough in future medical diagnosis.

Happy with first results from B22, from left to right: Pijanka Jacek (Keele), Dr Josep Sulé-Suso (University Hospital of North Staffordshire and Keele University); and Dr Jacob Filik, Dr Gianfelice Cinque, Dr Katia Wehbe and Dr Mark Frogley from Diamond

Finally, the Core EXAFS beamline (B18) achieved first light and the end of last year, and recently collected their first XAFS spectrum. Work continues to prepare it for its first users in 2010.

More information on Diamond’s beamlines