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High Pressure journal dedicates issue to EBS' new capabilities

10-10-2024

What experiments in extreme conditions are possible using the new Extremely Brilliant Source at the ESRF? The international journal High Pressure has devoted a whole issue to provide researchers with answers.

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Science under extreme conditions covers many different fields, including Earth and planetary science, material synthesis and characterisation or biology.

Whilst third-generation synchrotron facilities, including the former ESRF, have pioneered major breakthroughs in the field over the last three decades, the new ESRF EBS represents a giant leap forward in extreme environment research.

It has increased the X-ray performances by a factor 100 in terms of brilliance and coherence compared to the former accelerator. It provides significantly higher photon flux density and higher coherence, especially for photon energies above 30  keV, which is the most relevant energy range for diffraction and imaging at extreme conditions.

This translates in being able to study much smaller samples and much faster than previously. Scientists can also generate much high pressure or temperature statically or in dynamic processes, which was impossible before.

Mohamed Mezouar, head of the Matter at extremes group, says: “These are exciting times, as very challenging experiments are now possible under unprecedented pressure and temperature conditions, such as those prevailing deep inside giant planets”. And he adds: “We are already witnessing groundbreaking discoveries in various scientific areas”.

Techniques portfolio

The ESRF offers a diverse range of beamlines dedicated to extreme conditions experiments. “Science under extreme conditions is, by essence, multidisciplinary”, explains Mezouar.

This is the reason why the portfolio of ESRF beamlines allowing research in the field is wide: from the high pressure diffraction beamlines ID15B and ID27, followed by the ID06-LVP (Large Volume Press) to X-ray absorption beamlines ID12, BM23, BM30/BM16 (to see local atomic arrangement of materials) and ID24 and the nuclear resonance scattering and inelastic X-ray scattering beamlines ID14, ID20 and ID28 (to track electronic and thermal excitations under extreme pressure-temperature conditions).

Dynamic pressure programme

Most of these beamlines have been revamped with the EBS upgrade, and the ESRF has invested in a strong ‘dynamic pressure’ programme.

Among the new initiatives is the implementation of a permanent high-power laser facility at ID24 that enables probing local atomic arrangements in extreme states of matter. The first results are about to be published in a high impact journal soon.

Other developments are the time-resolved platform at the X-ray imaging beamline ID19 and the possibility of dynamic compression experiments at the X-ray diffraction beamline ID09.

Read the issue here: https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/ghpr20/44/3?nav=tocList

Text by Montserrat Capellas Espuny