2013 SRC Users' Meeting
The annual SRC Users' Meeting is scheduled this year for September 27-28, 2013. Details regarding registration, submitting abstracts, Aladdin Lamp award, poster session, and more can be found on the meeting website by clicking here.
New Beam time schedule and User Fee Update
The beam time schedule for July - December of 2013 is now available for Users. Note that the fee schedule has been updated.
SRC Funding Update
The NSF withdrew funding for the University of Wisconsin Synchrotron Radiation Center in 2011. This decision was made in spite of a history of outstanding evaluations. Unusually, the SRC community of scientists was not given the opportunity to openly discuss the closure of the facility with a peer review committee. In fact, there has never been a peer review committee recommendation to end NSF support, and the only peer review committee statement on closure (December 2008, as an aside in a report on a separate R&D proposal) was that "closing the University of Wisconsin accelerator complexes would be a terrible mistake."
With the NSF ending its stewardship of the SRC, the University of Wisconsin has stepped in with funding through the end of 2013. In January of 2012, user fees were put into place to supplement the University contributions. The superconducting RF electron gun, as a vital component of a next generation light source based on free electron lasers, is moving forward vigorously with first beam tests in the late spring, and a renewal proposal for this program has been submitted to the Department of Energy. The idea of a user consortium and/or participating research teams to fund continued operations of Aladdin is being actively pursued. Interested parties should contact User Advisory Committee chair Tomasz Durakiewicz, tomasz@lanl.gov.
Bursting through the Silicon Barrier: Developing Carbon-based Nanoelectronics with Graphene
A promising way forward has been found by SRC Scientists to use carbon to create electronic devices instead of silicon. In a work published in ACS Nano, using tools including those found at SRC, scientists have developed a process for making a never-before-seen, atomically thin, composite material containing ordered layers of graphene and nanocrystals of graphene monoxide.
Superconductivity-like Electron Pair Formation in Molecules Discovered
In work published in Physical Review Letters, researchers from the Wehlitz group at SRC outline their discovery that electrons can form pairs in some aromatic molecules as small as benzene. This finding opens a new avenue in the quest for understanding high temperature superconductors and, ultimately, in the search for room temperature superconductors.
Unique Instrument Significantly Advances the Ability to Study Neurodegenerative Diseases
Scientists and engineers at the Synchrotron Radiation Center (SRC), led by SRC User Carol Hirschmugl (UW-Milwaukee), have designed and built an instrument that greatly increases the ability of researchers to study individual cells. The development of this instrument, as shown in a paper published in NeuroImage, brings an unprecedented tool to bear in the study of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s.
Phased Approach for a Free Electron Laser Facility Presented At International Conference
A phased approach to the construction of a full service free electron laser (FEL) facility was presented at the International Particle Accelerator Conference (IPAC) in May of 2012. This paper presented continuing design efforts for a next generation FEL facility, building on the Wisconsin Free Electron (WiFEL) study. In addition, a progress report was presented on the superconducting RF electron gun program.