The first synchrotron infrared beamlines at the advanced light source: Spectromicroscopy and fast timing

• Published in: Ferroelectrics 2001-01, Vol.249 (1), p.1-10
• Main Authors: Martin, Michael C., McKinney, Wayne R.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: beamline; Exact sciences and technology; FTIR; Fundamental areas of phenomenology (including applications); infrared; Infrared sources; Instruments, apparatus, components and techniques common to several branches of physics and astronomy; Optical sources and standards; Optics; Physics; Synchrotron; Synchrotron radiation instrumentation; X- and γ-ray instruments and techniques
• ISSN: 0015-0193; 1563-5112
• DOI: 10.1080/00150190108214960

Two recently commissioned infrared beamlines on the 1.4 bending magnet port at the Advanced Light Source, LBNL, are described. Using a synchrotron as an IR source provides three primary advantages: increased brightness, very fast light pulses, and enhanced far-IR flux. The considerable brightness advantage manifests itself most beneficially when performing spectroscopy on a microscopic length scale. Beamline (BL) 1.4.3 is a dedicated FTIR spectromicroscopy beamline, where a diffraction-limited spot size using the synchrotron source is utilized. BL 1.4.2 consists of a vacuum FTIR bench with a wide spectral range and step-scan capability. This BL makes use of the pulsed nature of the synchrotron light as well as the far-IR flux. Fast timing is demonstrated by observing the pulses from the electron bunch storage pattern at the ALS. Results from several experiments from both IR beamlines will be presented as an overview of the IR research currently being done at the ALS.