The ongoing upgrade to the Advanced Photon Source (APS) continues to move forward, with the first of its new feature beamlines bringing in its first users.

The X-ray Photon Correlation Spectroscopy (XPCS) beamline at 8-ID is one of seven new feature beamlines the APS Upgrade project is building, along with key infrastructure for the completion of two more. These beamlines are optimized to take advantage of the increased brightness and coherence of the upgraded APS X-ray beam and will make currently impossible X-ray techniques commonplace. 

XPCS will focus on the X-ray technique it is named after, enabling new research into the dynamics of liquids, gels, glasses and quantum materials. The new 8-ID contains two experiment stations, one for wide-angle XPCS and one for small-angle XPCS and was constructed over the past year as part of the APS Upgrade project. With the XPCS beamline in the final stages of commissioning with X-ray beams, the beamline staff will prepare to work with their first scientific users.

“It’s been a long process to bring the XPCS beamline to life,” said Suresh Narayanan, scientist and leader of the group operating 8-ID. “It’s immensely gratifying to see it come to fruition, and to be carrying out first experiments on the new instruments. The first feature beamline to be ready is a tribute to the engineering team that worked tirelessly through the pandemic to get us to this state today. I’m looking forward to the scientific results that will come from this and every beamline at the upgraded APS.”

Beamlines will continue to come online over the course of the next year as the beam current in the new storage ring ramps up to full power. The first general user run at the upgraded APS began in September and will continue to December.