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Far-Infrared Beamline 5-Year Plan: 2020 Review

Far-Infrared Beamline 5-Year Plan: 2020 Review

Owned by Brant Billinghurst
Last updated: May 29, 2020
9 min read

Introduction:

The following describes a 5-year plan for the Far-Infrared beamline based on the current user base and the recommendations from the 2018 beamline review. This version of the plan has been modified based on a May 2020 review of progress and changes to priorities and resources. Note also that this plan is based on our best available knowledge at this time, as priorities and situations may change this plan will likely change as well.

Staffing Plan:

Ideally, another staff member would be added to the beamline to help, with development projects on the beamline. We hope to hire a Post Doctoral fellow in collaboration with Mid-Infrared beamline and AOD, to explore the potential ways of collecting Infrared light from CLS 2.0 including “Gentle Bends” installed in a straight. Ideally, this position would start as early as 2020.

Maintenance and Upgrade Projects:

Year: 2018-2019

  1. Major maintenance projects required to maintain the beamline performance

    1. Project: Basic Maintenance

      1. Purpose: Basic Maintenance consists of the predictable maintenance that will be required every year to maintain the beamline performance (the following is a list of these items, in other years this will be referred to as a single item).

        1. Calibrate Pressure gauges

        2. Repair pumps

        3. Replace on average 1 pump per year

        4. Replace internal sources (1 per year)

        5. Replace Windows

        6. Replace interferometer Cable

        7. Unplanned maintenance

      2.  Budget

        1. Calibrate Pressure gauges: $1200 per year

        2. Repair pumps: $1000 per year

        3. Replace on average 1 pump per year: $10000

        4. Replace internal sources (1 per year): $1847

        5. Replace Windows: $ 700.00

        6. Replace interferometer Cable: $462

        7. Unplanned Maintenance: $10000

          1. Total: $ 25309

      3. Timeline: These items are generally quick and are done as a part of routine operations.

    2. Project: Repair of the sample chamber and interferometer slides

      1. Purpose: This was routine maintenance performed on the Bruker IFS125HR spectrometer, which improved the vacuum and stability of the spectrometer, it was done while the electron gun was down in late 2018 as it required a significant amount of downtime.

      2. Budget: $ 20764

      3. Timeline: Completed

    3. Project: Hazardous Gas system Flow Monitor

      1. Purpose: Recently, HSE and Engineering have voiced concerns about the hazardous gas exhaust system that serves the Far-Infrared beamline. To address some of these concerns and improve safety on the Far-Infrared beamline a system that will monitor the flow of the hazardous gas exhaust system and alert staff if the flow drops below safe levels is being installed.

      2. Budget: $ 1000

      3. Timeline: Completed

  2. Projects to enhance beamline or to develop new research capabilities

    1. Project: New Recirculating Chiller

      1. Purpose: As low-temperature gas measurements are a common experiment on the Far-Infrared beamline and the current NesLab recirculating chiller has become unreliable a replacement chiller has been ordered.

      2. Budget: $ 37508

      3. Timeline: Completed

    2. Project: Variable Angle Reflection System

      1. Purpose: As per the recent beamline review, it is strategically important that the Far-Infrared beamline increase its condensed phase capabilities and user base. The variable angle reflection system provides the ability to study materials like monolayers etc. and allows electrochemical studies using the SEIRAS-Optimized ATR wafer system developed at the U of S.

      2. Budget: $9200.00

      3. Timeline: A VeeMax III variable angle reflectance system has been purchased from PIKE technologies. The system has been received and tested on the beamline. An initial design for a cover that will allow in vacuum operation has been designed and was to be constructed in Spring 2020, unfortunately, due to the effects of COVID-19 this construction has been put on hold due to lack of resources. Once resources become available again development will continue. Completion is now expected in late 2020 or early 2021.

    3. Project: Horizontal Microscope Purge Improvements

      1. Purpose: Water vapor is a confounding factor in the analysis of data collected in the Far-Infrared. While much the beamline equipment is kept under vacuum the Horizontal microscope is not and depends on a purge system to reduce the effect of water vapor. Improving the purge system will improve the quality of the data collected with the microscope.

      2. Budget: $5000.00

      3. Timeline: Completed

Year: 2019-2020

  1. Major maintenance projects required to maintain the beamline performance

    1. Project: Basic Maintenance

      1. Purpose: See 2018-2019 1.a.i

      2. Budget: $ 25309

      3. Timeline: These items are generally quick and are done as a part of routine operations.

  2. Projects to enhance beamline or to develop new research capabilities

    1. Project: New Stages for Horizontal Microscope

      1. Purpose: While the Horizontal Microscope has been successful the reproducibility of the current sample stage is insufficient for high precision measurements. Furthermore, more precise adjustability of the detector would be beneficial. New stages will address these issues.

      2. Budget: $40000

      3. Timeline: Completed

    2. Project: Flow Controllers for Discharge Cell

      1. Purpose: The current discharge system uses needle valves to control the flow was gasses into the cell. This does not offer precise measurements of the flow rate of the gases. As our discharge experiments become more sophisticated flow controllers will be required to more accurately control the mixtures of gasses used. This also has safety ramifications as knowing the amount of a hazardous gas being flowed through the system is an important parameter in determining the risks involved

      2. Budget: $10000.00

      3. Timeline: Completed

Year: 2020-2021

  1. Major maintenance projects required to maintain the beamline performance

    1. Project: Basic Maintenance

      1. Purpose: See 2018-2019 1.a.i

      2. Budget: $ 25309

      3. Timeline: These items are generally quick and are done as a part of routine operations.

    2. Project: New Laser for Spectrometer

      1. Purpose: The IFS125HR spectrometer uses a HeNe laser for timing, this laser has a lifespan of approximately 5 years. Therefore, we expect it will need to be replaced in 2020-2021.

      2. Budget: $11886.79

      3. Timeline: The current laser has failed and we will install the spare laser in June 2020, a new spare will be ordered soon thereafter.

    3. Project: 25 micron Mylar Beam splitter for IFS 125 HR spectrometer

      1. Purpose: Improve S/N below 80 cm-1

      2. Budget: $ 10000

      3. Timeline: We would expect to get this in late 2020, budget permitting

    4. Project: Modification to QMC Cryogen Free Detector

      1. Purpose: While the new QMC cryogen-free detector has been a success, several areas could be improved, there are some vibrations in the system that can affect the quality of the data collected using the high-frequency channel, the optical filter on the high-frequency channel exhibits more fringing than we would like and the computer system being used to control the system is unreliable. QMC Instruments has already agreed to address these issues.

      2. Budget: $5000 (for incidentals the majority of the cost are covered by our agreement is QMC Instruments)

      3. Timeline: We expect this to be done in early 2021.

  2. Projects to enhance beamline or to develop new research capabilities

    1. Project: Raster Scanning Capability for Horizontal Microscope and better imaging

      1. Purpose: Currently the microscope on Far-Infrared only can do signal point microscopy, the addition of this capability will allow it to map.

      2. Budget: $17500

      3. Timeline: we expect that this will take a year to implement as there are significant challenges, in the development of the software.

    2. Project: Improve temperature control for Nitrogen cooling of 2M cell.

      1. Purpose: Currently the Far-Infrared beamline is using a liquid nitrogen injection system to cool the 2M cell, but this results in uneven cooling, to address this a system for flowing <100K nitrogen gas though the cell is being developed, along with a heating system to achieve temperatures between 100K and 200K.

      2. Budget: $5000

      3. Timeline: We hope to have this system working by the end of 2020, but COVID-19 has caused significant delays.

    3. Project: Terahertz Laser system

      1. Purpose: This system will provide light in the 1-80 cm-1 which is currently difficult to access with the synchrotron due to noise constraints. It will allow beamline equipment such as the 2 M cell, Horizontal Microscope, Discharge cell, etc. to be used when the synchrotron is being used for other experiments. This will allow increased scientific output. We plan on this being an RTI application.

      2. Budget: $138,000 (CLS contribution: $ 20000)

      3. Timeline: Submit RTI application in October 2020, if successful we expect to have the system installed by 2022.

    4. Project: Cryostat

      1. Purpose: The addition of a closed-loop cryostat was one of the recommendations from the Far-Infrared beamline review. The Cryostat would allow low-temperature studies of materials. This type of equipment has been very productive on both the Ailes Beamline at Soleil and the THz/Far-IR beamline at the Australian Synchrotron.  

      2. Budget: $ 260,000 (note: we are in the process of reviewing the requirements to reduce the cost)

      3. Timeline: We hope to submit this as a small project this year and have it installed by mid-2022.

Year: 2021-2022

  1. Major maintenance projects required to maintain the beamline performance

    1. Project: Basic Maintenance

      1. Purpose: See 2018-2019 1.a.i

      2. Budget: $ 25309

      3. Timeline: These items are generally quick and are done as a part of routine operations.

    2. Project: Active Optics Upgrade

      1. Purpose: Low-frequency vibrations hamper the operation of the beamline below 80 cm-1. The active optics system would address these issues. Addressing these vibrations is one of the recommendations from the recent beamline review. It is being planned for 2020-2021 as the resources required for this project are otherwise committed till then. (Note: If the Infrared Upgrade CFI proposal is successful this project would not be required)

      2. Budget: $ 50000

      3. Timeline: We would expect to start design work in early 2020 and do installation and testing in mid-2021. The final commissioned system would not be expected until Mid 2023.

  2. Projects to enhance beamline or to develop new research capabilities

    1. Project: Cryogenic Gas Cell

      1. Purpose: The current gas cell cannot go below -80 C without significant temperature gradients. Currently, there has been an increasing demand for temperature-dependent studies, this cell would increase the temperature range achievable at the beamline, increasing our ability to serve the scientific community. We plan to make this an RTI proposal. Note: The project suggested here is a less ambitious version of the one described in the Infrared Upgrade CFI proposal.

      2. Budget: $ 300000 (CLS contribution: $ 150000)

      3. Timeline: We would expect to submit the RTI in October of 2021 and if successful have the system built and installed by 2023.

    2. Improvements to Discharge cell

      1. Purpose: Add several improvements to the Discharge cell current monitoring, high current cut-off, stability braces, a feed line for RF excited gasses, new steel connect to the spectrometer, protected mirrors, new more stable mirror mounts, and a laser alignment system.

      2. Budget: $ 60000

      3. Timeline: We would expect to have much of this online by mid-2021, depending on access to funding and engineering resources.

    3. Integrated Fluorescence Microscope and Pressure controller for Horizontal Microscope

      1. Purpose: Allow the pressure in a diamond anvil cell to be changed and measured without removing the diamond anvil cell from the horizontal microscope and breaking purge.

      2. Budget: $ 20000.00

      3. Timeline: we would expect to have this done by early 2023, depending on access to funding and engineering resources.

Year: 2022-2023

  1. Major maintenance projects required to maintain the beamline performance

    1. Project: Basic Maintenance

      1. Purpose: See 2018-2019 1.a.i

      2. Budget: $ 25309

      3. Timeline: These items are generally quick and are done as a part of routine operations.

    2. Project: Replace Beamsplitters

      1. Purpose: Beamsplitters are a fundamental component of the Spectrometer and do degrade over time, to maintain optimal performance they should be replaced.

      2. Budget: $25000

      3. Timeline: This is a simple purchase and can be completed once funds are allocated.

    3. Project: Addition of a gas cabinet to the beamline

      1. Purpose: To allow the use of hazardous gasses on the beamline.

      2. Budget: $ 10000

      3. Timeline: This project is dependant on upgrades to our current Hazardous Gas Exhaust system as increased capacity is required. We have been waiting for this improvement in the exhaust system for 8+ years. Currently, we expect that this will be complete in 2022.

  2. Projects to enhance beamline or to develop new research capabilities

    1. Project: Heated Gas Cell

      1. Purpose: This system would build on the cryogenic gas cell we hope to develop in 2021. Our current system can only reach a temperature of 70C, this system would be able to reach 500C and would greatly increase our capabilities to do temperature-dependent studies. Note: The project suggested here is a less ambitious version of the one described in the Infrared Upgrade CFI proposal.

      2. Budget: $ 50000

      3. Timeline: Once funded we would expect this system to take 12 months to develop and to be available in late 2024.

    2. Project: Molecular Beam

      1. Purpose: A molecular beam system will provide supercooled gas-phase molecules for study. This will both allow the study of molecules who’s spectra would otherwise be impossible to resolve and would allow the study of clusters that form at these temperatures.

      2. Budget: $ 70000.00

      3. Timeline: We would expect this to take 18 months to develop and test which would make it available to users in 2024.

Longer-term projects:

  1. Project: In Vacuum Microscope

    1. Purpose: An in vacuum microscope is the ideal solution to water vapor complicating Far-Infrared spectra. Furthermore, it will allow cryogenic studies to be done without the complication of extra windows. Ultimately this is the type of system that would be required to make the Far-Infrared beamline at the CLS the world leader in Far-Infrared Microscopy. We would envision this as an RTI application. Note: The project suggested here is a less ambitious version of the one described in the Infrared Upgrade CFI proposal.

    2. Budget: $ 650 000

  2. Project: RF Discharge Cell

    1. Purpose: The RF discharge will allow the production of transient species, and would complement the current Glow discharge the beamline currently has installed. Note: The project suggested here is included in the Infrared Upgrade CFI proposal.

    2. Budget: $90000

  3. Low-Resolution Spectrometer

    1. Purpose: While the IFS125HR is ideal for High-Resolution gas-phase spectroscopy, a lower resolution spectrometer would be more appropriate for condensed phase work, and would offer advantages such as step-scan which would be useful for many studies. Furthermore, having a second spectrometer will allow some experiments that do not require synchrotron light to be performed in parallel with experiments that do, or for development projects to be done in parallel with user experiments.

    2. Budget: $400 000

  4. Improved Beamline Optics and Beamline move Reorientation

    1. Improved collection optics based on new designs can improve the brightness at the beamline by up to an order of magnitude. While, replacing the optics moving the beamline would allow for more space and better access, which would provide the possibility of having more experimental end stations on the beamline.

    2. Budget: $1 500 000