Electron Dynamics in Spin Systems

[ Register at SSRL ]

Yves Acremann, Peter Fischer, and Andreas Scholl
(Joint SSRL/ALS at SSRL, Wednesday, October 11)

The spin relaxation time of electrons controls the spin accumulation in ferromagnetic/nonmagnetic junctions, the current driven motion of domain walls in nanowires, the demagnetization time in laser-driven demagnetization experiments, and the life time of a spin population after optical pumping. Time-resolved X-ray dichroism techniques offer new ways of detecting spin dynamics and understanding the underlying physics. Because of their element specificity, the sensitivity to spin and orbital magnetization, and the possibility to reach nanometer spatial resolution, they are particularly suited for complex materials, multilayers, nanostructures, junctions, and multicritical systems with coupled spin, orbital, electric, and charge orders. This workshop aims at identifying the new science that can be addressed with next-generation ultrafast x-ray source applying bunch compression, laser slicing, and free electron lasers.

Joint Macromolecular Crystallography Workshop: Using the Uni-Puck and Web-Ice at ALS and SSRL

[ Register at ALS or SSRL]

Paul Adams, Aina Cohen, Nicholas Sauter, Michael Soltis, and Christine Trame
(Joint ALS/SSRL Crystallography Automation Workshop, Tuesday, October 10 at ALS and Wednesday, October 11 at SSRL)

A joint workshop will be held on Oct 10 at the ALS and on Oct 11 at SSRL focusing on collaborative developments in automated sample screening and rapid crystal assessment. The aim of the workshop is to familiarize users with the Uni-Puck and the use of the Web-Ice data analysis software. Although the majority of automated sample mounting systems are compatible with Hampton-style magnetic cryo-pins, many types of containers are used for sample pin transportation and storage. To simplify sample preparation for the synchrotron user community, a collaboration was formed between the ALS, APS SBC-CAT, and SSRL to develop the Uni-Puck, a common sample pin storage and shipping container compatible with the robotic sample mounting systems used at all of these facilities. Workshop participants will gain hands-on experience using the newly designed Uni-Puck with both the ALS and SSRL robotic sample mounting systems. Web-Ice is a web browser-based facility for diffraction image viewing, image analysis, autoindexing and strategy calculation developed at SSRL and in collaboration with LBNL. Workshop participants will learn how to use Web-Ice to display screening results, index diffraction patterns and set up strategies for data collection. At the ALS a series of talks on the morning of the first day will provide background material, and technical details of the Uni-Puck and Web-Ice. The afternoon of the same day users will be able to gain experience using the puck in the Berkeley Auto-mounter at the ALS sector 5.0 beamlines. The following day, in the morning at SSRL, users will use the Uni-Puck in the Stanford Auto-mounter. In the afternoon the Web-Ice software will be demonstrated.

Ultrafast Dynamics on Surfaces and in Liquids

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Anders Nilsson and Aaron Lindenberg
(Joint SSRL/ALS at SSRL, Wednesday, October 11)

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This workshop is aimed at bringing together researchers interested in the ultrafast dynamics that occur on surfaces and in the liquid state of matter, as well as the development of techniques for probing such diverse phenomena. These include optical spectroscopy, x-ray spectroscopy, x-ray scattering, high harmonic generation, THz spectroscopy, photoemission, free electron lasers, as well as theoretical techniques. It will consist of a series of invited talks with time allotted for contributed or walk-in talks.

Advanced Magnetic Spectroscopy

[ Register at ALS ]

Elke Arenholz and Hendrik Ohldag
(Joint SSRL/ALS at ALS, Wednesday, October 11)   

The Advanced Light Source offers several "brilliant" state of the artelliptical undulator as well as excellent bending magnet sources for soft x-ray spectroscopy of magnetic materials. Polarization-dependent soft x-ray spectroscopy is an excellent tool to investigate the properties of complex magnetic systems since the optical properties of magnetic materials at core level resonances carry unique and element specific information, for example about the spin and orbital magnetic moment of each element. This workshop intends to bring together current and prospective users of magnetic spectroscopy endstations at the Advanced Light Source. In a series of contributed talks we will summarize the current status of the program at the ALS and furthermore identify forefront problems in magnetism research to which soft x-ray spectroscopy can provide a unique contribution.

Doing Research at Synchrotrons: An Introduction

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John Bargar and Andrew Doran
(Joint SSRL/ALS at ALS, Wednesday, October 11)

This workshop is geared towards students and users who are new to synchrotron radiation and its applications. After primers on the production and delivery of photons, this workshop will provide introductions to the plethora of experimental techniques available at synchrotron facilities. Each seminar will address two basic questions:  1) Why come to a synchrotron? What are the questions that we are trying to answer using a particular technique, and what other non-synchrotron techniques exist, if any, to answer the same questions? 2) How does the experiment work? What are the techniques, samples, and equipment necessary to address these questions?

Opportunities and Challenges for Momentum-Resolved Inelastic X-ray Scattering

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J. Guo, Zahid Hasan, Zahid Hussain, and Z.-X. Shen
(Joint SSRL/ALS at ALS, Wednesday, October 11)

Inelastic x-ray scattering is emerging as a powerful probe of collective dynamics in condensed matter systems. Progress over the last decade has made it possible to study lattice dynamics with millivolt resolution with this technique. This planned 1.5 day workshop is aimed at exploring the scientific opportunities, theoretical developments and technical challenges in studying momentum-resolved valence charge dynamics with millivolt resolution at the current synchrotron sources as well as the future FEL-based sources at the soft X-ray regime. The goal is to converge on a few potentially high-impact research and technical R&D directions and design an optimal facility to carry out the science.

Soft X-Ray Resonant Scattering and Reflectivity/Structure from Coherent Scattering: Dynamics and Static Imaging

[ Register at ALS ]

Harald Ade, Jeff Kortright, Jan Lüning, Chris Jacobsen and Steve Kevan
(Joint SSRL/ALS at ALS, Wednesday, October 11)

These two joint workshops have been combined to focus on emerging applications of diffuse soft x-ray scattering and reflectivity: 1) probing nanoscale heterogeneity with chemical, magnetic, and other forms of spectroscopic contrast, 2) extending such statistical measurements into the time domain using correlation spectroscopy, and 3) producing 3D images with few-nanometer resolution using coherent resonant and non-resonant soft x-ray scattering. The workshop will commence with introductory talks that will discuss the fundamentals of resonant x-ray scattering, transverse coherence, coherent scattering, and diffractive imaging. This will be followed by talks illuminating current applications. Finally, plans for the proposed coherent scattering and microcopy and soft x-ray resonant scattering beamlines at the ALS will be discussed. The workshop will be useful to chemists, physicists, biologists, and material scientists interested in learning about these new, incisive techniques for nanoscale analysis.