1. PHOTOIONIZATION OF METASTABLE IONS: FIRST ABSOLUTE MEASUREMENT
by Lori Tamura
(Contact: phaneuf@physics.unr.edu)

Beginning physics students can often check their calculations by turning to the answers given in the backs of their books. Unfortunately, there is no such recourse for checking state-of-the-art theoretical calculations such as those that describe the structure of ions and their interactions with photons. Although these calculations are crucial to our understanding of both astrophysical and laboratory plasmas, experiments that allow the critical testing of theory have only relatively recently become possible with the advent of third-generation synchrotron light sources of exceptional brightness. At the ALS, researchers from the U.S. and Mexico used a newly developed ion-photon-beam endstation to obtain high-resolution measurements of the photoionization cross-section of oxygen ions in metastable (long-lived) excited states. The comparison of the results with two independent theoretical calculations is believed to be the first reported for photoionization from metastable states of ions.

Read the full story at http://www-als.lbl.gov/als/science/sci_archive/52meta.html.

Publication about this research: A.M. Covington, A. Aguilar, I.R. Covington, M. Gharaibeh, C.A. Shirley, R.A. Phaneuf, I. Alvarez, C. Cisneros, G. Hinojosa, J.D. Bozek, I. Dominguez, M.M. Sant' Anna, A.S. Schlachter, N. Berrah, S.N. Nahar, B.M. McLaughlin, "Photoionization of Metastable O+ Ions: Experiment and Theory," Phys. Rev. Lett. 87, 243002 (2001).

2. DIRECTOR PROVIDES UPDATE ON "STATE OF THE ALS"

ALS Director Daniel Chemla talked about current and future plans at an all-hands meeting of ALS personnel on August 14, 2002. He began his review of the "state of the ALS" by announcing in person his decision to step down from the directorship of Berkeley Lab's Materials Sciences Division and to concentrate his efforts on leading the ALS. He has been director of both divisions since 1998. He then went on to provide brief status reports on a number projects currently in the works. Of these, the furthest along is the Molecular Environmental Science (MES) beamline, which saw first light on July 23 and is currently being commissioned; it is expected to be completed later this year. Daniel also mentioned that the proposed femtosecond slicing source has received tentative approval from the Office of Basic Energy Sciences (BES), with funding forthcoming for a beamline, endstation, and laser. Other important initiatives being pursued for the near future include boosting the ALS's core competency through improvements in ultrahigh-resolution spectroscopy and inelastic scattering, as well as continued efforts toward making the case for a super-radiant far-infrared ring to be built on top of the booster ring.

Daniel also touched upon more general issues facing the ALS, such as centralized beamtime scheduling and transferring the operation of BES beamlines from participating research teams (PRTs) to the ALS. The facility should be able to accommodate such changes, Daniel indicated, as long as the necessary funding is provided. The shortage of office and lab space was also addressed with reference to an earlier plan to replace Building 7 (a 1940s-era building adjacent to the ALS) with a modern two- to three-story structure. With respect to user housing, Daniel reported that Berkeley Lab is exploring the possibility of having a third-party vendor build and operate an on-site user hostel. Such a facility would serve the housing needs of all the Berkeley Lab user facilities, whose combined users number in the thousands. In conclusion, Daniel summarized the ALS mission in terms of producing outstanding science by identifying areas of excellence and articulating a scientific vision, supporting present users by focusing resources, and supporting future users by formulating and implementing a strategic plan.

3. SHIRLEY, HALBACH, AND RENNER AWARD NOMINATIONS OPEN
(Contact: alsum2002@lbl.gov)

Each year, the ALS Users' Executive Committee (UEC) presents awards to scientists and staff who have made significant contributions to the ALS scientific and user support programs. This year, the UEC invites ALS users and staff to submit nominations for any or all of the following awards:

• David A. Shirley Award for Outstanding Scientific Achievement at the Advanced Light Source
• Halbach Award for Innovative Instrumentation at the Advanced Light Source
• Tim Renner User Services Award for Outstanding Support to the ALS User Community

The nominations may be for an individual or a group, and a brief rationale for the nomination(s) is required. Past award winners, along with a representative from the UEC and the ALS, will serve on the award selection committees. To submit a nomination, go to the 2002 ALS Users' Meeting Award Nominations Web page at http://www-als.lbl.gov/als/usermtg/awards/nominations.html. The deadline for nominations is Friday, September 30. The awards will be presented at the ALS Users' Meeting dinner/buffet on Thursday, October 10.

This year's ALS Users' Meeting will be held October 10 - 11, 2002, at Berkeley Lab (see http://www-als.lbl.gov/als/usermtg/ for details). All users, including students and postdocs, are encouraged to contribute to the program by submitting abstracts of their work done at the ALS. Abstracts must be submitted by September 13 to be considered for an oral presentation or the student poster competition. Abstracts submitted by September 27 will be guaranteed space in the poster session and inclusion in the program booklet.

4. 7TH SXNS CONFERENCE COMING SOON TO TAHOE
(Contact:JBKortright@lbl.gov)

The 7th International Conference on Surface X-Ray and Neutron Scattering (7SXNS) will be held at Lake Tahoe September 23 - 27, 2002. This conference brings together researchers studying structural aspects of thin films and surfaces of solid, liquid, and soft condensed materials via neutron and x-ray scattering techniques. In addition to emerging experimental and theoretical techniques, papers will report on studies of materials ranging from semiconductor and magnetic nanostructures to protein systems and DNA chips. While hard x rays and neutrons have long been used to probe such structures, soft x rays like those produced at the ALS are of growing interest because they can be tuned to the core levels of many interesting species in magnetic and organic systems whose surface and thin-film properties are interesting and technologically important. Several ALS studies involving magnetic and polymer films will be presented. Conference sponsors include the ALS, Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (SSRL), and the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS). Full details can be found at http://sxns.lbl.gov/.

5. WHO'S IN TOWN: A SAMPLING OF ALS USERS

Following are some of the experimenters who will be collecting data during the next three weeks at the ALS.

Beamline 1.4.3
Hoi-Ying Holman (Berkeley Lab)
Ted Raab (Carnegie Institution of Washington)
Felicia Betancourt, Bob Glaeser (Berkeley Lab)

Beamline 4.0.2
Dan Waddill (Univ. of Missouri-Rolla)
Jo Stohr (Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory)
Stephen Cramer (Univ. of California, Davis)

Beamline 7.3.1.1
Z.Q. Qiu (Univ. of California, Berkeley)
Simone Anders (IBM Almaden Research Center)
Gary Mitchell (The Dow Chemical Company)
Rainer Fink (Univ. Erlangen, Germany)
Christian Stamm (Stanford Linear Accelerator Center)

Beamline 8.0.1
Yasuji Muramatsu (Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute)
David Shuh (Berkeley Lab)

Beamline 10.0.1
Alfred Mueller (Univ. Giessen, Germany)
Dan Dessau (Univ. of Colorado at Boulder)
Darrah Thomas (Oregon State Univ.)
James Allen (Univ. of Michigan)

Beamline 10.3.2
Tatiana Kirpichtchikova, Geraldine Sarret, Frederic Panfili (Univ. Joseph Fourier, France)

6. NEXT ISSUE IN THREE WEEKS

ALSNews will take a short Labor Day break. The next issue will be published in three weeks, on September 18. We hope everyone enjoys the rest of the summer, and we'll be back in the fall!

7. OPERATIONS UPDATE
(Contact: Lampo@lbl.gov)

For the user run of August 14 - 19 (two-bunch mode), the beam reliability (time delivered/time scheduled) was 98%. Of the scheduled beam, 96% was delivered to completion without interruption. For the user run of August 20 - 25 (normal multibunch mode), the beam reliability was 97%. Of the scheduled beam, 76% was delivered to completion without interruption. There were no significant outages.

Long-term and weekly operations schedules are available on the Web (http://www-als.lbl.gov/als/accelinfo.html). Requests for special operations use of the "scrubbing" shift should be sent to Bruce Samuelson (BCSamuelson@lbl.gov, x4738) by 1:00 p.m. Friday. The Accelerator Status Hotline at (510) 486-6766 (ext. 6766 from Lab phones) features a recorded message giving up-to-date information on the operational status of the accelerator.

LBNL/PUB-863
Editors: lstamura@lbl.gov, alrobinson@lbl.gov, amgreiner@lbl.gov

This work was supported by the Director, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC03-76SF00098.