XNL

Infrastructure and User Services  

The XNL facility at the TU/e campus will comprise three X-ray beamlines: 

Low-energy Beamline 1 (0.3-3 keV) will cater specifically to the needs of catalysis and soft condensed matter research, using techniques such as X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) and Scattering (SAXS/WAXS). For the realization of the end-stations for Beamline 1 we will seek collaboration with NC2SM. 

Medium-energy Beam Line 2 (3-30 keV), of interest for NC2SM as well, will be used to study the structure of a great variety of materials with XRF, SAXS/WAXS, CT microscopy and XAS. An additional important application of Beamline 2 will be cultural heritage studies with a particular emphasis on the study of paintings. 

High-energy Beamline 3 (30-200 keV) will generate hard X-rays, which are scarcely available at synchrotron facilities, opening new vistas of X-ray research. Important applications with potentially enormous economic impact are nucleation/growth processes in high-strength steels and light alloys, an improved understanding of fatigue, and additive manufacturing. Beamline 3 will enable in situ studies of plasma-wall interaction for nuclear fusion research at the Magnum-PSI setup at DIFFER. Other fields of interest include geophysics, low-dose phase contrast medical imaging, and security inspection. 

In principle the separate beamlines are sufficiently compact to make them transportable, which would create the exciting possibility of doing measurements on-site: in hospitals, museums, and at industrial production lines. The feasibility of mobile beamlines will be investigated. 

Examples/description of the type of research  

The purpose of probing materials with spectroscopic, microscopic and scattering techniques is to reveal the composition and structure of the material and determine the structure’s origins. X-ray-based techniques provide structural and (spatially resolved) chemical information and can, in many cases, be carried out under relevant working conditions; this includes high temperatures, pressures, or specific gases or liquids. A distinction can be made between the nanostructure, i.e. the structure on an atomic level, and microstructure, such as boundaries between structural elements, crystalline domains and defects.  

As materials properties are not static, processes need to be studied with characteristic timescales in the range of milliseconds to minutes (catalysis, electrochemistry) up to days to months (fatigue, ageing). Even longer timescales are involved in the field of arts conservation, for which the reactivity of materials needs to be understood to prevent them from changing further and allow safe conservation and restauration, or the stability of protective coatings for marine applications. For adequate structural and electronic characterization on all different length and time scales, access to intense high-quality X-rays is a prerequisite. 

Within the Netherlands, several materials research strengths (themes) can be identified, each with proven excellence and leadership as well as strong academic and industrial consortia: 

• Chemistry and catalysis 
• Energy Materials (e.g. solar panels, batteries, fuel cells, plasma-surface interactions)  
• Construction materials (e.g. additive manufacturing, light alloys, high-strength steels) 
• Functional Materials (e.g. polymers, thin films and coatings, membranes, semiconductors, colloids and biological soft matter, self-healing materials) 
• Conservation of Art 

How to access the infrastructure ? 

Access to XNL will include the use of most of the available equipment under supervision and with support of the local scientific and technical staff. After training by the beamline responsible, users will be expected to mount (and remove/store) the samples themselves in an experimental cell of choice (which may be their own) and perform routine scans using one or more of the techniques above. Acquired data, including monitor and metadata, and tools for verification will made available. Storage will be facilitated by TU/e. Data evaluation will take place at the user’s home institute.