Core-level photoemission spectroscopy provides a local probe of expansion dynamics and associated transient chemical properties as a highly pressurized, metallic fluid expands into vacuum following impulsive heating of a semiconductor by an intense, ultrashort laser pulse. Transient photoemission peak shifts reveal that metal-insulator transitions occur rapidly following laser heating. These experiments probe constituents species and solidification kinetics occurring in the early moments of material ejection and provide insight into how particles arise in the current laser ablation regime.

Two new soft X-ray scanning transmission microscopes located at the Advanced Light Source (ALS) have been designed, built and commissioned. Interferometer control implemented in both microscopes allows the precise measurement of the transverse position of the zone plate relative to the sample. Long-term positional stability and compensation for transverse displacement during translations of the zone plate have been achieved. The interferometer also provides low-distortion orthogonal x, y imaging. Two different control systems have been developed: a digital control system using standard VXI components at beamline 7.0, and a custom feedback system based on PC AT boards at beamline 5.3.2. Both microscopes are diffraction limited with the resolution set by the quality of the zone plates. Periodic features with 30 nm half period can be resolved with a zone plate that has a 40 nm outermost zone width. One microscope is operating at an undulator beamline (7.0), while the other is operating at a novel dedicated bending-magnet beamline (5.3.2), which is designed specifically to illuminate the microscope. The undulator beamline provides count rates of the order of tens of MHz at high-energy resolution with photon energies of up to about 1000 eV. Although the brightness of a bending-magnet source is about four orders of magnitude smaller than that of an undulator source, photon statistics limited operation with intensities in excess of 3 MHz has been achieved at high energy resolution and high spatial resolution. The design and performance of these microscopes are described.

We report, to our knowledge, the first use of pump-probe photoemission spectroscopy to study core-level dynamics during a laser-driven phase transition. Synchrotron x-rays probe the kinetics of cluster formation during the initial moments of femtosecond laser ablation.

Two new scanning x-ray transmission microscopes are being built at beamline 5.3.2 and beamline 7.0 of the Advanced Light Source that have novel aspects in their control and acquisition systems. Both microscopes use multiaxis laser interferometry to improve the precision of pixel location during imaging and energy scans as well as to remove image distortions. Beam line 5.3.2 is a new beam line where the new microscope will be dedicated to studies of polymers in the 250–600 eV energy range. Since this is a bending magnet beam line with lower x-ray brightness than undulator beam lines, special attention is given to the design not only to minimize distortions and vibrations but also to optimize the controls and acquisition to improve data collection efficiency. 5.3.2 microscope control and acquisition is based on a PC computer running WINDOWS 2000. All mechanical stages are moved by stepper motors with rack mounted controllers. A dedicated counter board is used for counting and timing and a multi-input/output board is used for analog acquisition and control of the focusing mirror. A three axis differential laser interferometer is being used to improve stability and precision by careful tracking of the relative positions of the sample and zone plate. Each axis measures the relative distance between a mirror placed on the sample stage and a mirror attached to the zone plate holder. Agilent Technologies HP 10889A servo-axis interferometer boards are used. While they were designed to control servo motors, our tests show that they can be used to directly control the piezo stage. The use of the interferometer servo-axis boards provides excellent point stability for spectral measurements. The interferometric feedback also provides active vibration isolation which reduces deleterious impact of mechanical vibrations up to 20–30 Hz. It also can improve the speed and precision of image scans. Custom C++ software has been written to provide user friendly control of the microscope and integration with visual light microscopy indexing of the samples. The beam line 7.0 microscope upgrade is a new design which will replace the existing microscope. The design is similar to that of beam line 5.3.2, including interferometric position encoding. However the acquisition and control is based on VXI systems, a Sun computer, and LABVIEW™ software. The main objective of the BL 7.0 microscope upgrade is to achieve precise image scans at very high speed (pixel dwells as short as 10 μs) to take full advantage of the high brightness of the 7.0 undulator beamline. Results of tests and a discussion of the benefits of our scanning microscope designs will be presented.

Author(s): Glover, T.E.; Ackermann, G.D.; Belkacem, A.; Feinberg, B.; Heimann, P.A.; Hussain, Z.; Padmore, H.A.; Ray, C.; Schoenlein, R.W.; Steele, W.F.

We report, to our knowledge, the first use of pump-probe photoelectron spectroscopy to study core-level dynamics during a laser-driven phase transition. Synchrotron xrays probe the phase transition dynamics during the initial moments of femtosecond laser ablation.

We report results on experiments using combined laser and synchrotron radiation. Picosecond laser pulses at 800nm are used to induce surface photovoltage transients in p-type Si samples. A two-component decay is observed. The fast component of decay provides a direct measure of synchrotron soft X-ray pulse durations.

The development of two zone-plate microscopes for X-ray spectroscopic analysis of materials is described. This pair of instruments will provide imaging NEXAFS analysis of samples in transmission at atmospheric pressure and imaging XPS and NEXAFS analysis of sample surfaces in a UHV environment.

Design and performance of a scanning transmission x-ray microscope (STXM) at the Advanced Light Source is described. This instrument makes use of a high brightness undulator beamline and extends the STXM technique to new areas of research. After 2.5 years of development it is now an operational tool for research in polymer science, environmental chemistry, and magnetic materials.

This bending magnet beamline has been in operation since February 1995 for the characterization of optical elements (mirrors, gratings, multilayers, detectors, etc.) in the energy range 50–1000 eV. Although it was designed primarily for precision reflectometry of multilayer reflecting optics for EUV projection lithography, it has capabilities for a wide range of measurements. The optics consist of a monochromator, a reflectometer, and refocusing mirrors to provide a small spot on the sample. The monochromator is a very compact, entrance-slitless, varied-line-spacing plane-grating design in which the mechanically ruled grating operates in the converging light from a spherical mirror working at high demagnification. Aberrations of the mirror are corrected by the line spacing variation, so that the spectral resolving power λ/Δλ is limited by the ALS source size to about 7000. Wavelength is scanned by simple rotation of the grating with a fixed exit slit. The reflectometer has the capability of positioning the sample to within 10 μm and setting its angular position to 0.002°. LABVIEWTM based software provides a convenient interface to the user. The reflectometer is separated from the beamline by a differential pump and can be pumped down in 1/2 hour. Auxiliary experimental stations can be mounted behind the reflectometer. Results are shown that demonstrate the performance and operational convenience of the beamline

Neutral beams for the next generation tokamaks will be based on multiampere negative ion beams with a beam energy of about 1.0 MeV and pulse lengths of a thousand seconds. High intensity dc beams at these levels of beam energy will require extensive development in electrostatic accelerators. At Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, a two-module electrostatic quadrupole (ESQ) accelerator was built to accelerate ions to 200 keV. In this experiment, up to 100 mA of H− beam current was obtained from a Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute cesiated volume source using a multiaperture preaccelerator which merged 19 beamlets into a single circular beam at the entrance to the ESQ accelerator. The H− beam was accelerated by the ESQ to accelerate 200 keV without any significant beam loss or emittance growth.

We are developing a surface‐conversion source, using a 10 cm diameter solid barium converter, to produce D− ion beams suitable for acceleration by the ESQ accelerator. The ion temperature was found to be ≊3% of the converter bias potential. The efficiency of converting D+ to D− is as high as 4.8% but only 25% of the D− ions survived to leave the source without being stripped by the plasma or the gas molecules. Some early results from the RF discharges are promising because of their higher power efficiency and gas efficiency.

A D− surface-conversion source using a solid barium converter is designed for steady-state operation to produce 200 mA of D−. A similar ion source of twice the size as the one discussed here will meet the requirements set by the present US-ITER neutral beam injector design. Among the possible types of ion sources being considered for the US-ITER neutral beam design, the barium converter surface-conversion source is the only kind that does not use cesium in the discharge. This absence of cesium will minimize the number of accelerator breakdowns.

A high current DC electrostatic quadrupole (ESQ) accelerator is being developed for negative-ion-based neutral beam heating and current drive on the next generation tokamak. Beam energy and current will eventually be in the megaelectronvolt and multiampere range. This constant-current variable-voltage (CCVV) accelerator uses a series of identical ESQ modules. The authors have successfully tested a prototype CCVV accelerator up to 200 keV with a 100-mA He/sup +/ beam (with space charge equivalence of 140 mA of D/sup -/) for a pulse length of 1 s. Testing was also done with a 42-mA H/sup -/ beam (H/sup -/ beam current was limited by source performance). There was almost no beam loss in the ESQ accelerator.<>