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Left: image of the radiation produced by the insertion device of FaXToR with the ring current of 250mA, the wiggler at minimum gap and a combination of filters which absorb the 30% of the total power. Right: picture of FaXToR beamline scientists with the ALBA Director, Caterina Biscari, in the control hutch of the beamline. Alessandra Patera shows in the computer screen the footprint of the very first photon beam on the fluorescence screen located in the optical hutch, taken with only 50 mA of electron beam in the storage ring.
Cerdanyola del Vallès, 22nd February 2024 The commissioning time on 12th February was used to bring the first synchrotron radiation into the FaXToR beamline. The front end (inside the tunnel, connecting the storage ring to the beamline) has been opened to transfer the radiation, produced by the insertion device (an in-vacuum multipole wiggler), on the main optical element which is a Double Multilayer Crystal monochromator. No other optics elements besides attenuators, slits and diagnostics are included in the optical hutch.
Commissioning started at 7 am, with the current of the storage ring initially set to very low values (1 mA), to test the system with a low power. Upon illumination with the photon beam, the optical elements take in the power and start to outgas the chemical species adsorbed on its surface, thus degrading the pressure in the vacuum chamber. Following the commissioning plan, storage ring current was slowly raised, while constantly checking that the temperature of the optical elements and the pressure inside the vacuum vessels remained within acceptable limits, until the nominal ring current of 250 mA was reached.
The 18th February was another important commissioning date as, at ring current set of 250mA, the insertion device was slowly and carefully set to the nominal values of the beamline operation. Radiation was confined and was absorbed by the lead shielding of the optical hutch. Moreover, the safety group placed radiation detectors inside the optical hutch and in the experimental hall nearby also, and that region was confined during the two commissioning days.
All the divisions of ALBA worked together to allow this first commissioning of FaXToR: from accelerators operating the synchrotron and the front end, to the workshop's technicians, preparing the vacuum in the beamline and checking its status during the commissioning; engineering and infrastructure taking care of all mechanical elements and the cooling of the beamline, and computing preparing the equipment cabling, the protection system, the network and the remote control. The FaXToR team constantly supervised the status of the beamline and analysed the images obtained by the fluorescent screen to investigate the performance of the beamline. In summary, this is an important milestone for the beamline, reached thanks to the contributions of many people that have celebrated the first success with the FaXToR team.
This project is co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund of the European Union.
