At CHESS, we have adopted this microfabrication technique to develop novel x-ray optics called,Collimating Channel Arrays  (CCAs) [1], for confocal x-ray fluorescence microscopy (CXRF). Because the first CCA optics were fabricated from silicon substrates, the range of x-ray fluorescence energies for which they could be used, and hence the elements they could be used to study, was limited. Unwanted x-rays above about 11 keV could penetrate through the silicon, showing up as background and interfering with the measurement.

CHESS staff have been hard at work since the initial installation of the shield walls in September (completed in 6 short days!). Installation of the transfer pipe from the F2 hutch, station beam stops and associated shielding, utilities, and beamline controls were completed all while servicing users during the fall CHESS running period. Monochromatic beam experiments have already begun and white beam capability will be commissioned during the 1-week spring shutdown.

One class of such novel materials, block copolymers (BCPs), are being developed today to enable continued advancement of data archiving, as well as advanced drug refinement using protein filters, among other things.

On Sept. 6, the 26-ton solenoidal superconducting magnet was carefully removed from the Wilson Synchrotron Laboratory. This was the last vestige of the CLEO detector, which for nearly 30 years recorded data produced from the collision of positively and negatively charged electrons that hurtled around the 840-yard subterranean collider, CESR (Cornell Electron-positron Storage Ring).

Visiting scientists from the University of Virginia have used the facilities of the Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source (CHESS) to observe their chemistry in action. By firing high-intensity X-rays into a sample in a process known as X-ray crystallography, CHESS scientists took a series of snapshots of a material as it crystallized, showing how changes in the formula affect the process of crystal growth.

NSF CAREER Award, 2017-2022

Assistant Professor Silberstein received a 5-yr, 500,000 award from the Division of Civil, Mechanical and Manufacturing Innovation (CMMI), NSF.

Award Abstract #1653059

CAREER: Building a Mechanistic Understanding of Mechanochemically Adaptive Polymers

Although high power conversion efficiency has been achieved for these materials, the fundamental understanding of solidification of perovskite inks and the reproducibility of related manufacturing processes remains an open question.

With the capability of handling above one million counts per second per channel, the implementation of a 4 channel Xspress 3 for the Vortex ME-4 solid drift detector (SDD) at CHESS makes it easy to count multi-million counts per second of XRF. That is an increase of XRF counting rate by more than one order of magnitude comparing to the DXP-XMAP system we have been using for Vortex ME-4 SDD up to recently.

This means that beyond what happens on the front lines here at our lab, we foster a culture of science that transcends the space between our walls. Our public engagement and education team, Xraise, raises interest and awareness in science by letting the science speak for itself. Bathed in photons and electrons our entire lives, it’s easy to take for granted that light is emitted when charged particles are accelerated.

In this project, dubbed CHESS-U, an 80 meter section of the Cornell Electron Storage Ring (CESR) will be replaced by 12 compact double-bend achromats (DBA’s) to lower electron beam emittance by a factor of three. The critical element in the achromat is a 2.3 meter long combined function (CF) dipole magnet which has a curved geometry. In this cost-effective and transversely compact design, the magnet has a “C-shape” core of dimensions 260 x 412 mm and tapered pole shape.