"Arphystic" Festival – Lille, France – November 20th-29th, 2007
The new event Physifolies : Arphystic festival about art.
Can physics help to understand music? How can a rupestral painting be dated ? How the new materials are exploited by the sculptors? Will Star Trek's teleportation be possible one day ? Why do bridges sometimes collapse? How physics help to authenticate a picture?
In the various events of the festival, you will find the answers to these questions and to many others...
PLEIADES in the light
October 25th, 2007: the first photons of PLEIADES are observed in the optical hutch of the beamline, during radioprotection tests. PLEIADES is an ultra high resolution soft X-ray beamline dedicated to spectroscopic studies of diluted samples. Its light sources are two undulators: an elliptic HU80 undulator with permanent magnets and an electromagnetic HU256 undulator.
SESAME and SOLEIL
The collaboration between the 2 synchrotron facilities was set up officially at SOLEIL on 23 October, 2007 by Prof. Toukan (Director of SESAME) and Prof. van der Rest (Director of SOLEIL).
"Night of researchers"
On September 28th 2007, from 5 pm till 2 am, SOLEIL was present at Milly la Forêt for the second edition of the "Night of researchers", with the theatre play " Jack the electron ", models and workshops. This event is organized by the Region Ile-de-France, in association with 7 partners from Ile-de-France (among which SOLEIL and the CNRS) and is supported by the European Commission.
Young pupils with their teachers, parents and teenagers, onlookers and walkers... all of them were stunned to see Milly la Forêt's big Market transformed into a theater of science for one night. They were more than 200 to visit workshops about magnetism, waves and light. See you for the next edition!
SOLEIL in high schools of the Centre region
On September 20, the President of the Centre region Michel Sapin and Mrs…, Rector of the Academy, launched the program “SOLEIL in the high schools”. The schedule includes visits, interactive science events and debates with SOLEIL and CNRS researchers. Since the beginning, several classes have participated and we are impatient to welcome others. If you wish to come and visit SOLEIL, please set a date with us as soon as possible!
First beam for an infrared beamline
Monday, September 3rd 2007, the first photons reached the optical hutch of SMIS beamline, dedicated to infrared microscopy. The beam is produced by a dipole which vacuum chamber contains two mirrors: they allow the collection of a high photon flux, that will be simultaneously used on the two microscopes of SMIS.
SOLEIL beamlines
Severe defects delay the opening of the SOLEIL beamlines to users... Read.
Discovery of a new phosphorus shape with LUCIA
Analyzing a stishovite grain a few tens of microns large by absorption micro-spectroscopy at the edge of phosphorus, the researchers of the ENS laboratory of geology and a SOLEIL group working on materials physics put in evidence, for the first time, the PO6 shape of phosphorus (phosphorus element with 6 atoms of oxygen). This new configuration of phosphorus would allow to understand better the mineralogy of the ground mantle. These studies have been realized in particular on the LUCIA beamline, installed on SLS, the Swiss light Source.
"Radiobiology and synchrotron light"
The first “Radiobiology and synchrotron light” will take place on June 25 and 26, 2007 on the SOLEIL premises. It is jointly organized by SOLEIL and ECRIN via the Melusyn group. The objective is the exploration of possibilities offered by synchrotron light in the face of research challenges in radiobiology, mainly in the area of the spatial/temporal effects of ionizing beams on integrated biological systems. A putting-in-perspective of these challenges for the medical sciences will be raised, especially as part of the assessment of the cancer risk posed by weak doses (a major problem in public health).
Discover the synchrotron radiation of MARS beamline
On June 14th the MARS beamline was the 10th beamline of SOLEIL to receive beam in the first hutch of the line, the optical hutch.
The main controls were realized (geometry of the beam, the adaptation and the radioprotection of the optical hutch) with, in addition, the first visualization in the air of the SOLEIL synchrotron radiation.Some attached images illustrate the captivating phenomenon that the teams observed till 3 am in the morning.
The Rennes I University on the SOLEIL way
On June 4th, SOLEIL and the University of Rennes 1 signed an agreement, based on multiple long-time collaborations and which will facilitate the access of our installations to the Rennes researchers and beyond. Supported by the Region and the association of local authorities " Rennes Métropole ", this collaboration plans that the Breton teams acquire specific experimental equipments which will allow SOLEIL to satisfy best their scientific objectives.
With this agreement, The University of Rennes 1 becomes SOLEIL ninth official partner university along with:
The Créteil University
The Pierre and Marie Curie University(Paris VI)
The Versailles Saint-Quentin University
The Paris SUD University (Paris XI)
The Orléans University
The Cergy-Pontoise University
The Montpellier II University
The Val de Marne University (Paris XII)
A new achievement: the CRISTAL beamline
We can’t get enough! The CRISTAL beamline has received its first beam on Tuesday April 24th. As soon as the line was open, and in only a few minutes, an image of the white beam was taken on a diamond placed in front of the monochromator. There were no problems to report, either concerning the machine, the undulator, the assembly, the alignment, the optics, the vacuum, the electronics, the computer part, the detection, the services or the security system.
CRISTAL is a beamline dedicated to diffraction of high resolution X Rays for crystallography and for the structure of condensed material.
After starting up of CRISTAL, it will soon be the turn of the infrared lines SMIS and AILES which will complete the series of SOLEIL “phase 1” beamlines.
SOLEIL at the heart of industrial environmental concerns
SOLEIL will be present at Intersol 2007, the 6th International Conference and Exhibition on Soils, Sediments, and Water, from March 27 to 29, 2007, on the premises of the Val-de-Marne Development Bureau in Ivry-sur-Seine.
This international event, held under the auspices of the French Ministry of the Economy, Finance, and Industry and the United Nations, will bring together important decision-makers, legal professionals, researchers, consultants, heads of industry, and providers of environmental cleanup services.
During the conference, top European and American experts in the field will present regulatory, technical, and economic contexts related to the management of polluted sites and soils, from diagnostics to restoration.
Director’s Message
28/03/2007
Intersol 2007 (from 27/03/2007 to 29/03/2007) - Paris, Department 75, France
6th symposium on the cleanup of polluted soils, sediments, and water. Principal themes will be regulatory and environmental contexts, risk studies, innovative treatments and procedures, and pyrotechnics.
Contact : Vincent Limousin
Real-scale test on DIFFABS: Kidney stone study
A first experimental result was obtained on March 21, in spite of the very difficult conditions that are still preventing SOLEIL from functioning under normal operating conditions.
SOLEIL and HERCULES school
From the 19th of March and during one week, SOLEIL will welcome, for the first time, the school of the synchrotron radiation for a workshop on the beamlines.
First photons: another beamline on the list!
On March 15th, it was SWING beamline's turn to receive its first photons. SWING is dedicated to the study of samples with complex structure (macromolecules, tissues, nanomaterials...) by small and wide angle X-ray scattering. It is the 8th beamline on the list - even 9th beamline if one counts LUCIA, installed on the Swiss synchrotron SLS since summer 2004, and soon back to SOLEIL (2008).
SOLEIL, Techinnov forum partner
Many actors in the fields of innovation and economic development for the South of Ile-de-France will gather next March 8th at the prestigious site of the Orly Airport for the 1st Techinnov forum.
Organized by the Chambers of Commerce and Industry and the economic development offices of Essonne and Val-de-Marne, with the support of the general councils, the regional council of Ile-de-France, MEDEF, CGPME, and CJD, this event is organized around business meetings between innovative small and mid-sized businesses on one hand, and young businesses and financiers on the other hand.
CNAM is a guest of SOLEIL
On February 15th, SOLEIL and CNAM hosted forty invited guests for the inauguration of the exhibition “A century of X-rays”. For this exhibition, which will welcome several hundred visitors over two months, CNAM opened its reserves and is exhibiting astonishing historic objects at SOLEIL. Guided tours from the first X-ray tube to the SOLEIL beamlines.
7 opened beamlines now... CASSIOPEE and PROXIMA1 also started.
After the start in the last quarter 2006 of - in the order DIFFABS (September 13, 2006) , TEMPO (September 21, 2006) , ODE (October 13, 2006), SAMBA and DESIRS (December 13, 2006), the CASSIOPEE beamline (soft X-rays) of photoemission for the study of the electronic structures of surfaces and interfaces and the PROXIMA1 beamline (X-rays) dedicated to the structural study of macromolecules by diffraction received their first beam on February 8th.
The HU256 elliptical undulator has proved itself on the CASSIOPEE beamline
HU256 is a 3.6 meter long electromagnetic undulator developed by SOLEIL teams. It consists of 24 dipoles in the form of an H, arranged to produce alternating vertical and horizontal fields. This creates a helical, circular, or linear field. The addition of auxiliary coils (6 individual power supplies) ensures quasi-periodic operation in a vertical field, permitting the movement and reduction of harmonics 2 and 3 in the emission. For the horizontal field, quasi-periodicity can be obtained, if necessary, with the two main power supplies. Three models have been built by the BINP (Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics) in Novosibirsk, Russia, and are dedicated to the CASSIOPEE, PLEIADES, and ANTARES beamlines, respectively.
The acceptance of the Data Storage infrastructure has been pronounced
End 2006, the acceptance of the data storage infrastructure has been pronounced ; it will be used for storing data generated by the beamlines experiments. The solution is based on the concept of cellular storage "Active Circle". This choice has been determined by our constraints of availability, reliability, data security and scalability with the opening of the beamlines. It is already used by some of them (DIFFABS, ODE, SAMBA, TEMPO, ...) for storing their data of commissionning.
Guest house at SOLEIL for autumn
The guest house is a 1,195 m² SHON building, 19 m wide by 45 m long. It is part of the mass plan of extension of SOLEIL’s technical buildings. The building has 40 rooms and can be expanded to 80 rooms by lots as the program expands.
The CRITTMECA talk about SOLEIL
CRITTMECA newspaper - December 2006
