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Open Access
Abstract: Diamond Light Source is the UK's national synchrotron facility, entering user operation in 2007 with seven beamlines. With 33 operational beamlines, it has delivered user operations for over 10 years. During this time, Diamond has had to adapt its model of delivering software and hardware solutions to the rapidly expanding number of beamlines. Bespoke per-beamline solutions were possible with the initial seven beamlines, but as the number of beamlines grew, this has been harder to sustain.
In 2014, Diamond decided to provide a unified software and hardware solution to several new and existing beamlines [1] R. Walton et al., Mapping developments at Diamond, Proceedings of ICA-LEPCS2015, Melbourne, Australia (2015).
[Google Scholar]
, in order to reduce the overall cost of ownership of these systems. By pooling the resources, a software and hardware stack which was highly capable was developed. These beamlines were primarily engaged in mapping X-ray probe experiments, but with differences in detectors, micro- or nanopositioning stage requirements and, ultimately, the science case.
Mapping, or scanning-probe, beamlines conduct a usually rapid series of identical experiments, where the only variable is the spatial position of the X-ray micro- or nanoprobe relative to the sample. Typically at synchrotrons, this involves moving the sample and not the beam, and the pattern traversed by the sample is dependent on the experiment being conducted, but is often an alternating direction raster scan, or snake scan.
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Sep 2018
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I11-High Resolution Powder Diffraction
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Stephen P.
Thompson
,
Hilary
Kennedy
,
Sarah
Day
,
Annabelle R.
Baker
,
Benjamin M.
Butler
,
Emmal
Safi
,
Jon
Kelly
,
Andrew
Male
,
Jonathan
Potter
,
Tom
Cobb
,
Claire A.
Murray
,
Chiu C.
Tang
,
Aneurin
Evans
,
Ronaldo
Mercado
Diamond Proposal Number(s):
[10025]
Open Access
Abstract: Liquid oceans and ice caps, along with ice crusts, have long been considered defining features of the Earth, but space missions and observations have shown that they are in fact common features among many of the solar system's outer planets and their satellites. Interactions with rock-forming materials have produced saline oceans not dissimilar in many respects to those on Earth, where mineral precipitation within frozen seawater plays a significant role in both determining global properties and regulating the environment in which a complex ecosystem of extremophiles exists. Since water is considered an essential ingredient for life, the presence of oceans and ice on other solar system bodies is of great astrobiological interest. However, the details surrounding mineral precipitation in freezing environments are still poorly constrained, owing to the difficulties of sampling and ex situ preservation for laboratory analysis, meaning that predictive models have limited empirical underpinnings. To address this, the design and performance characterization of a transmission-geometry sample cell for use in long-duration synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction studies of in situ mineral precipitation from aqueous ice–brine systems are presented. The cell is capable of very slow cooling rates (e.g. 0.3°C per day or less), and its performance is demonstrated with the results from a year-long study of the precipitation of the hydrated magnesium sulfate phase meridianiite (MgSO4·11H2O) from the MgSO4–H2O system. Evidence from the Mars Rover mission suggests that this hydrated phase is widespread on the present-day surface of Mars. However, as well as the predicted hexagonal ice and meridianiite phases, an additional hydrated sulfate phase and a disordered phase are observed.
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Aug 2018
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B18-Core EXAFS
I18-Microfocus Spectroscopy
I20-EDE-Energy Dispersive EXAFS (EDE)
I20-Scanning-X-ray spectroscopy (XAS/XES)
Controls
Detectors
Optics
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Sofia
Diaz-moreno
,
Monica
Amboage
,
Mark
Basham
,
Roberto
Boada
,
Nicholas E.
Bricknell
,
Giannantonio
Cibin
,
Thomas
Cobb
,
Jacob
Filik
,
Adam
Freeman
,
Kalotina
Geraki
,
Diego
Gianolio
,
Shusaku
Hayama
,
Konstantin
Ignatyev
,
Luke
Keenan
,
Iuliia
Mikulska
,
J. Frederick W.
Mosselmans
,
James J.
Mudd
,
Stephen A.
Parry
Open Access
Abstract: This manuscript presents the current status and technical details of the Spectroscopy Village at Diamond Light Source. The Village is formed of four beamlines: I18, B18, I20-Scanning and I20-EDE. The village provides the UK community with local access to a hard X-ray microprobe, a quick-scanning multi-purpose XAS beamline, a high-intensity beamline for X-ray absorption spectroscopy of dilute samples and X-ray emission spectroscopy, and an energy-dispersive extended X-ray absorption fine-structure beamline. The optics of B18, I20-scanning and I20-EDE are detailed; moreover, recent developments on the four beamlines, including new detector hardware and changes in acquisition software, are described.
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Jul 2018
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Controls
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Abstract: Malcolm is a middlelayer framework that implements high level configure/run behaviour of control system components like those used in continuous scans. It was created as part of the Mapping project at Diamond Light Source to improve the performance of continuous scanning and make it easier to share code between beamlines. It takes the form of a Python framework which wraps up groups of EPICS PVs into modular "Blocks". A hierarchy of these can be created, with the Blocks at the top of the tree providing a higher level scanning interface to GDA, Diamond's Generic Data Acquisition software. The framework can be used as a library in continuous scanning scripts, or can act as a server via pluggable communications modules. It currently has server and client support for both pvData over pvAccess, and JSON over websockets. When running as a webserver this allows a web GUI to be used to visualize the connections between these blocks (like the wiring of EPICS areaDetector plugins). This paper details the architecture and design of framework, and gives some examples of its use at Diamond.
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Jan 2018
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Open Access
Abstract: A browser-based graphical user interface has been developed at Diamond. It is known as known as MalcolmJS as it communicates using Diamond's Malcolm Middleware protocol. The original goal was to communicate, via websockets with a PandABox in order to allow a user to examine and set attributes of numerous functional blocks within the instrument. With the continuing maturity of the JavaScript language, in particular the release of ES6, along with the availability of off-the-shelf reactive open-source JavaScript libraries, such as Facebook's React and Node.js, a rich set of tools and frameworks have entered the arena of user interface development suitable for control systems. This paper describes the design decisions based on these tools, experiences and lessons learned during and after the development process and the possibilities for future development as a generic, adaptable framework for instrument and control system user interfaces.
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Jan 2018
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Controls
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Abstract: Control System Studio (CS-Studio) is one of the most widely-used display managers for EPICS. It is based on the Eclipse Rich Client Platform (Eclipse RCP), allowing for coherent integration of interfaces for different systems with common graphical elements and preferences. However, this user interface presents a different way of working to those from the previous generation of EPICS tools such as Extensible Display Manager (EDM) and Striptool. At Diamond Light Source, EDM has been used since commissioning in two different ways: for machine operations and for beamline controls. Both uses of EDM will eventually be replaced with CS-Studio and significant effort has been put into this transition. Two kinds of change proved necessary: adaptations to CS-Studio itself, and changes to the typical user workflows. This paper presents both types of changes that were needed to make CS-Studio a productive tool at Diamond.
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Jan 2018
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Open Access
Abstract: PandABlocks is the open source firmware and software stack that powers PandABox, a Zynq SoC based "Position and Acquisition" platform for delivering triggers during multi-technique scanning. PandABlocks consists of a number of FPGA functional blocks that can be wired together at run-time according to application specific requirements. Status reporting and high speed data acquisition is handled by the onboard ARM processor and exposed via a TCP server with a protocol suitable for integration into control systems like "EPICS" or "TANGO". Also included in the framework is a webserver and web GUI to visualize and change the wiring of the blocks. The whole system adapts to the functional blocks present in the current FPGA build, allowing different FPGA firmware be created to support new FMC cards without rebuilding the TCP server and webserver. This paper details how the different layers of PandABlocks work together and how the system can be used to implement novel triggering applications.
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Jan 2018
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Data acquisition
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Abstract: Synchrotron SOLEIL and Diamond Light Source are
two third generation light sources located respectively in
France and the UK. In 2015, both facilities started the
collaboration project “PandA” to overcome technical
limitations of SPIETBOX at SOLEIL and Zebra at Diamond
as well as to manage obsolescence of the products.
The collaboration enables both institutes to share the
technical leadership on hardware, firmware and software
developments. The initial objective is to achieve multichannel
encoder processing to synchronize motion systems
and data acquisition during experiments addressing
simultaneous and multi-technique scanning. However, its
design based on Xilinx Zynq SoC is thought to be powerful
and modular in terms of firmware as well as for hardware.
This flexibility permits envisaging derivative applications
and interfacing to different third party hardware.
This paper details the organization of this collaboration,
status of the ongoing project in terms of hardware and
firmware capabilities and the results of the first tests at
both sites.
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Oct 2017
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I11-High Resolution Powder Diffraction
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Christopher G.
Morris
,
Nicholas M.
Jacques
,
Harry G. W.
Godfrey
,
Tamoghna
Mitra
,
Detlev
Fritsch
,
Zhenzhong
Lu
,
Claire
Murray
,
Jonathan
Potter
,
Tom M.
Cobb
,
Fajin
Yuan
,
Chiu C.
Tang
,
Sihai
Yang
,
Martin
Schröder
Open Access
Abstract: The identification of preferred binding domains within a host structure provides important insights into the function of materials. State-of-the-art reports mostly focus on crystallographic studies of empty and single component guest-loaded host structures to determine the location of guests. However, measurements of material properties (e.g., adsorption and breakthrough of substrates) are usually performed for a wide range of pressure (guest coverage) and/or using multi-component gas mixtures. Here we report the development of a multifunctional gas dosing system for use in X-ray powder diffraction studies on Beamline I11 at Diamond Light Source. This facility is fully automated and enables in situ crystallographic studies of host structures under (i) unlimited target gas loadings and (ii) loading of multi-component gas mixtures. A proof-of-concept study was conducted on a hydroxyl-decorated porous material MFM-300(VIII) under (i) five different CO2 pressures covering the isotherm range and (ii) the loading of equimolar mixtures of CO2/N2. The study has successfully captured the structural dynamics underpinning CO2 uptake as a function of surface coverage. Moreover, MFM-300(VIII) was incorporated in a mixed matrix membrane (MMM) with PIM-1 in order to evaluate the CO2/N2 separation potential of this material. Gas permeation measurements on the MMM show a great improvement over the bare PIM-1 polymer for CO2/N2 separation based on the ideal selectivity.
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Feb 2017
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Data acquisition
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Rob
Walton
,
Alun
Ashton
,
Mark
Basham
,
Peter
Chang
,
Tom
Cobb
,
S
Da Graca
,
Andrew
Dent
,
Jacob
Filik
,
Matt
Gerring
,
Charles
Mita
,
James
Mudd
,
C M
Palmer
,
U
Pederson
,
Paul
Quinn
,
Nick
Rees
Open Access
Abstract: Many synchrotron beamlines offer some form of
continuous scanning for either energy scanning or sample
mapping. However, this is normally done on an ad-hoc
beamline by beamline basis. Diamond has recently
embarked on an ambitious project to define how to
implement continuous scanning as the standard way of
doing virtually all mapping tasks on beamlines. The
project is split into four main areas: 1) User interfaces to
describe the mapping process in a scientifically relevant
way, generating a scan description that can be used later;
2) The physical process of scanning and coordinating
hardware motion and detector data capture across the
beamline; 3) Capture of the detector data and all the
associated meta-data to disk, deciding and describing the
layout of the file (or files) for the main use cases; 4)
Display and analysis of live data and display of processed
data. In order to achieve this common approach across
beamlines, the standard software used throughout the
facility (Delta Tau motor controllers, EPICS, GDA and
DAWN), has been built on.
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Oct 2015
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