NOTOS will be the 11th beamline of the scientific facility. X-ray absorption and diffraction experiments will be conducted with applications in the fields of chemistry, catalysis and materials science.

Apart from these experiments, 20-30% of the NOTOS beamtime will be focused on instrumentation development and innovation. It will be possible to test and improve optical components that require high-precision mechanics, to carry out optical analysis and to develop new detectors systems. NOTOS will be key to technology transfer because feasibility and proof-of-concept tests with industrial applications can be performed.

Its design has already been started with the aim of doing the first experiments in 2020. Its cost (about 2.5 millions of euros) will be funded half with European structural funds and half shared in equal parts between the Spanish and the Catalan government.

More research tools

Nowadays, the ALBA Synchrotron has eight operational beamlines, three of them with two end-stations, and two more are in construction and will be available for users in 2019 and 2020.

The new beamline NOTOS will expand the available analytical capabilities of the Spanish scientific community. The beamtime oversubscription is very high in ALBA; approximately half of the experiments proposals can not be accepted. "Building NOTOS offers great advantages. First of all, we will have new research instruments. We will also offer a very interesting tool for the industry. Besides, this will also help to create new high-qualification jobs in our country", according to Caterina Biscari, director of the ALBA Synchrotron.

In the last years the construction of new beamlines at the ALBA Synchrotron has been steadily growing. Initially, only five beamlines were foreseen. During the construction of the facility, it was agreed to build seven instead of five. The 8th beamline was open to users last October 2016. These beamlines, together with the three that are currently under construction and the four approved projects that are pending to secure funding, are drawing the near future of the facility. "Our goal is to have started the construction of the 15th beamline by 2020", continues Caterina Biscari.

From Grenoble to Barcelona

The ALBA Synchrotron will count on the instrumentation from BM25-A, one of the two beamlines that the Spanish government decided to build at the end of the 90s in the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) in Grenoble, when the decision of building the ALBA Synchrotron was not still approved.

Now, with the ALBA Synchrotron fully operational, the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness (MINECO) has decided to move one of the branches to the Spanish facility while the other branch will remain in Grenoble.