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ID03’s rebirth

27-04-2006

After nine months of gestation, a new beamline is born (or maybe reborn) at the ESRF.

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Id03It is a big baby of two experimental hutches, a control cabin and a laboratory and will be welcoming users by the summertime. Its new technical properties will make it more user-friendly and offer increased scientific possibilities.

ID03 was one of the first ESRF beamlines and it started producing data more than a decade ago. Today, it has undergone a thorough nine-month “surgery” and, on schedule, it has become a completely new beamline. Everything has changed: the space in the hutches, the wiring, the fluids, the furniture and lighting in the control cabin and even the colour of the beamline’s doors, which went from oppressive gray to a cheerful yellow.

 

All these changes have updated the beamline’s technical aspects and will afford new possibilities for experiments. The beamline, dedicated to surface science experiments, will be specialized in characterizing reactions in real conditions and will now have a smaller beam than before, which will increase its brilliance. In addition, the pipe that conducts the beam will now arrive directly to the sample, so scientists will be able to use the coherence of the beam. The new ID03 also includes a brand new laboratory for the preparation of the samples of the users.

 

One of the features of the beamline that is highly appreciated by its staff is the increased space in the hutches. “The advantage of having more space is that now we don’t need to become contortionists anymore when setting up experiments”, explains Helena Isern, Beamline Operation Manager of ID03.

 

Despite all the new features of the beamline, there are still changes foreseen. “We will have a new catalysis chamber and we will soon modernize the big diffractometer we have”, explains Roberto Felici, beamline responsible. “There is still a lot of work to do”, he concludes.

 

In the image: The control cabin.