POLARIS Phone number: 01 69 97 59

Members

Facility Manager
Pierre Legrand
01 69 35 96 60
06 86 42 32 97

Facility Operation Manager
Éric Larquet
01 69 35 96 00
06 78 10 61 53

Opérator
Heddy Soufari 
01 69 35 96 69

Applications for access can be made via the SunSET, selecting the Rolling Access or Block Allocation group (BAG) modality.  In Rolling Access, proposals can be submitted at any time, but will be cumulated and reviewed every 2 months. Consequently the time between project submission and attribution of access will be up to 3 months. See more details here.

Access to POLARIS is free of charge to academic projects or industrial-academic partnerships approved by the SOLEIL Programme Committee for biology and health, and for which results will be published in a peer-reviewed journal. For proprietary access to the microscope, users should contact the industrial outreach group for advice and competitive quotation.

Users are asked to bring or send  pre-clipped AutoGrids – (exceptionally, the clipping of the grids can be performed on-site) and their introduction to the microscope will be performed by in-house staff in order to optimise autoloader reliability. Dry-shipping Dewars can be sent to

Synchrotron SOLEIL
L’Orme des Merisiers
Départementale 128
91190 Saint-Aubin

The shipment should be clearly marked with the name of your local contact for the experiment, and tracking numbers should be provided to enable the dry-shipper to be refilled on arrival. 

Assistance can be provided in sample preparation for a small number of inexperienced users. SOLEIL is equipped with both Thermo Fisher Vitrobot and LEICA EM GP Cryo-plunge systems.

Data will be stored on site according to the principles laid out in SOLEIL’s data management policy, for at least a 5 years. Longer term data storage cannot be guaranteed.

Although processing and analysis of Cryo-EM data is complex and involves several passes through the data,  POLARIS is providing a live processing (and is working at implementing the SCIPION3 pipeline for pre-data processing) which runs during the measurements and will give an initial idea of the quality of data being collected.

Laboratoires : Biologie-microfluidique, Chimie, IPANEMA, Matériaux

Groupe support : GRADES, Détecteurs

For general enquiry, please use our contact email: heritage@synchrotron-soleil.fr

• Deterioration/Conservation: Ancient objects are constantly changing. They undergo processes of deterioration that alter their appearance and make them difficult to interpret. Among the best-known examples are the fading or discoloration of pigments, which alter the impression conveyed by paintings; the formation of rust, which can lead to the complete destruction of objects; or the degradation of microscopic limestone fossils due to the presence of acidic pollutants (Byne degradation). Conservation science therefore works in two directions: understanding past processes that have affected objects and preventing future changes to preserve them. Once degradation processes are better understood, restoration intervenes to preserve or mitigate the observed changes. The experimental challenge lies in being able to track and determine these physicochemical processes and propose/test technical solutions to address them.
   
• Archaeometry: The study of ancient objects and the analysis of their provenance and the manufacturing techniques used allow researchers to obtain valuable information about the organization of ancient societies and the circulation of goods during early periods. Each material transformation required to produce the final product corresponds to a physicochemical or mechanical process that must be identified. 
  The experimental challenges involve developing the technical methods needed to extract “clues” from ancient artifacts.
   
• Art History: The goal is to uncover the techniques and intentions of artists through the study of art production and various workshops, in order to identify the exchange, transmission, and circulation of ideas and techniques. Each stage of preparation involves a change in the use and properties of the components. All this knowledge is crucial for the conservation and restoration of artworks. The experimental challenge lies in determining the original recipes to reveal the artists’ techniques.
   
• Paleontology: Fossils, regardless of their size (from macro to nanoscale), constitute a valuable record of past life. They provide insights not only into the evolution of organisms, but also into the environments in which they lived and certain aspects of their functioning. Thanks to synchrotron techniques, it is now possible to:
  • visualize all preserved anatomical features, including internal structures, remains still buried in sediments, and surface morphologies that are difficult to detect using traditional laboratory techniques
  • spatially characterize both the organic (molecular remains) and inorganic (mineralogy, trace elements) compositions of fossils and sediments, which constitute a rich source of information on the biology of extinct organisms, the mechanisms of fossilization and their biases, and allow us to distinguish true traces of life from forms produced by abiotic processes. Furthermore, these data play a key role in identifying biosignatures, both on Earth and in the search for life on Mars.
     
• Paleoenvironment/paleoclimate: Sediments, rocks, and fossils contain information about the environments and climates in which they formed, thus serving as archives that allow us to trace the evolution of the climate and major events in Earth’s history. Studying them helps, among other things, to better understand how the planet’s gradual oxygenation transformed surface environments and accompanied the evolution of life; to explore the chemical conditions of the early Earth and the role certain elements may have played in the earliest life processes; and to reconstruct the environments in which past organisms lived. Synchrotron methods, in particular, make it possible to identify new paleoenvironmental indicators (“proxies”), notably those based on metallic elements, and to test the validity of those commonly used in the laboratory.

• XRF, XAS, XRD, XEOL, X-ray Raman
• X-ray microtomography, coherent diffraction imaging (ptychography)
• UV-visible-IR imaging, UV-visible spectroscopy, IR microspectroscopy, STXM, XPEEM