Physical and Chemical Analytical procedures Synchrotron Light Source Instrumentation and Functions By Obasi Martin Essuka

Matrikel No: 3556554

Lecturer: Dr. Andreas Danilewsky.

21-02-2013.

Introduction A synchrotron is a source of brilliant light that scientists can use to gather information about the structural and chemical properties of materials at molecular level. Different spectra of light such as Infrared, Ultraviolet and X-rays are directed down beamlines where researchers choose the desired wavelength to study their sample. Interaction between light and matter in the sample reveal intrinsic properties of the sample. A synchrotron can be used to probe the matter and analyze a host of physical, chemical, geological and biological processes. Synchrotrons are very expensive instruments and are usually national facilities dedicated to national and international researchers and scientists. They are beyond laboratory scale equipments and some can occupy as much space as a football pitch costing several hundred million Euros. The main difference between x-ray research performed with laboratory x-ray sources and those performed using the synchrotron is mostly based on technical issues such as higher xray flux, smaller x-ray divergences and better collimation produced by the synchrotron as compared to the laboratory x-ray sources. The light produced by synchrotron light source is about 10^3-10^6 brighter than laboratory x-ray instruments. This gives much brighter images revealing very fine details. But the treatment and interpretation of data in both cases is fundamentally the same. The higher flux, wavelength tuneability and smaller beam sizes allow fast time-resolved experiments, the use of more complicated sample environments, the simultaneous combination of scattering experiments with others non x-ray based techniques and also a high throughput of samples. These features make the synchrotron a very valuable instrument as compared to laboratory x-ray instruments. This report will describe the basic features and functions of the synchrotron with special emphasis on the ANKA synchrotron light source in Karlsruhe Institute of Technology KIT. Most of the data and images in this report have been taken from the ANKA 2010/2011 annual report.

Synchrotron

Fig.1 Schematic view of the synchrotron showing the most important components A synchrotron is a particle accelerator dedicated to the production of light for research and technology (see Fig.1) The synchrotron light starts with an electron gun. A heated element or cathode produces free electrons which are pulled through a hole in the end of the gun by a powerful electric field. This produces an electron stream about the size of hair. (see fig.3). At ANKA the electrons are generated from a triode gun at 90 KeV and are injected into a racetrack microtron. The gun allows both multibunch and single bunch operation. The electron stream is fed into a linear accelerator or linac. High energy microwaves and radio waves chop the stream into bunches or pulses. The electrons also pick up speed by catching the microwaves and radio waves. When they exit the linac, the electrons are travelling at almost the speed of light and carrying about 300 million electrons. At ANKA the acceleration unit of the microtron is a 5.3 MV linac through which the electrons pass 10 times to pick up the final energy of 53 Mev. The linac has a radio frequency of 3 GHz and is powered by a 6 MW klystron (fig.2). The main dipoles of the microtron have a field 1.2 T (ANKA annual report 2010/2011).

Fig.2 Layout and photo of the 53MeV racetrack microtron (source. ANKA 2010/2011 annual report)

Fig.3 showing accelerating particles in a synchrotron. Particles accelerating at speed of light (source. ANKA 2010/2011 annual report)

The linac feeds into the booster ring which uses magnetic fields to force the electrons to travel in a circle. Radio waves are used to add even more speed. The booster ring ramps up the energy in the electron stream to between 1,5 and 6 gigaelectron volts. This is enough energy to produce synchrotron light in the infrared to hard x-ray range. At ANKA the electrons from the microtron are injected off axis into the booster synchrotron in a multi-turn process with kicker positioned opposite to the injection septum. The optics of the booster synchrotron
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consists of four pairs of 45 bends and horizontally focusing quadrupoles before and after bend doublet; vertical focusing is achieved only by the edge fields of the bends. The acceleration in the booster synchrotron is achieved by a single cell, 500MHz, 200 W cavity. The booster ring feeds electrons into the storage ring, a many-sided donut-shaped tube. The tube is maintained under vacuum, as free as possible of air or other stray atoms that could deflect the electron beam. Large powerful magnets keep the beam absolutely true. Keeping the electron beam absolutely true is vital when the material under investigation is measured in parts per million. This precise control is achieved by using quadrupole (four poles) and sextdrupole (six pole) magnets. Small adjustments with these magnets act to focus the electron beam. At ANKA the electrons are extracted from the booster synchrotron by a slow pump and a fast kick. For injection into the storage ring the beam in the storage ring is deflected towards the storage ring septum by means of three kickers. When the electrons have enough energy to produce light, an injection system transfers them from the booster ring to the storage ring. Synchrotron light is produced when the bending magnets deflect the electron beam, each set of bending magnets is connected to an experimental station or beamline. Machine filters, intensity, or otherwise manipulate the light at each beamline to get the right characteristics for the experiment. There are many beamline operating at ANKA and some others are still under construction. The diagram below shows a complete set of the ANKA synchrotron light source with the various beamlines. However the beamlines dedicated to spectroscopy include; FLUO x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy XAS x-ray absorption spectroscopy INE-BL beamline for actinide research SUL-X x-ray beamline for environmental research WERA soft x-rays analytics facility IR1 infrared beamline for spectroscopy and ellipsometry IR2 infrared beamline for microspectrometry and nanospectrometry UVCD-CD12 vacuum-UV beamline for synchrotron circular spectroscopy.

dichroism

Fig.4 Schematic view of the ANKA synchrotron showing the various beamlines. Reference 1. ANKA annual Report 2010/2011 2. www.odec.ca/projects/2005