Dark Period Beamtime

The APS Upgrade Project will require a storage ring installation period, during which the APS will pause operations for one year. User experiments are scheduled to end on April 17, 2023, with the installation period scheduled to begin one week later, on April 24, 2023. Consistent with these dates, the last APS operations run is scheduled to start on Jan. 31, 2023, and end on April 17, 2023. The upgraded APS will return to operations after the 12-month installation and commissioning period, though the initial operations will be at reduced current and availability as the machine is tuned up. Regular updates will be provided here. LS-CAT user operations will end on April 10, 2023 at 8:00AM CST.

The LS-CAT staff is working on securing alternative data collection at various light sources throughout the world. Currently, there is scheduled time at NSLS-II at Brookhaven National Labs, the ESRF in Grenoble, France and Diamond Light Source (DLS) in Oxfordshire, UK.

Request Beamtime Procedure

1. Fill out offical Beamtime Request form
2. Complete a No X-ray ESAF
3. Complete a sample spreadsheet per instructions
4. Ship dewar to LS-CAT per instructions

Sample spreadsheet Instructions

1. Download sample template form Sample Spreadsheet
2. Save spreadsheet in xls or xlsx
3. Ensure your spreadsheet meet the following requirements:
   • Column header names are not altered
   • There are no special characters except dash - and underscore _
   • Contains no empty spaces, points, commas, plus, etc.
   • All sample acronyms are unique and are not longer than 20 characters
   • If a puck is not full, delete rows without crystals

Shipping instructions

1. Fill out dry shipper form
2. Plan for samples to arrive 7-5 days prior to your beamtime
3. Email tracking numbers to your local contact and beamtime@ls-cat.org
4. Place a return FedEx E service shipping label inside dry shipper

Synchrotrons at a glance