£7million funding from EPSRC to grant the UK National Research Facility at the ESRF.

Press releases:

https://warwick.ac.uk/newsandevents/pressreleases/7_million_funding

https://news.liverpool.ac.uk/2019/02/25/7million-funding-to-grant-xmas-wish/

After around 30 years of service, our bending magnet BM28 was extracted on February 11^th before being taken apart for recycling. It will be replaced by a much smaller magnet (Short Bend) in June 2020.

BM28 from the machine side! In the old days, it was called D28. The x-rays used to travel down the tube on the left hand side.	The big blue thing is our long bending magnet

The ESRF EBS shutdown started on 10^th December 2018 and will last 20 months to dismantle the old ring, remount the new one and test it. The new BM28 magnet (the short bend) will be install in June 2020. The XMaS users should be able to use the beamline in the autumn.

In the meantime, see a panoramic view of the new control cabin: the offline x-ray source lab (blue door) and small windows looking inside the synchrotron x-ray experimental hutch to the right.

Very active summer with the extension of the experimental hutch (EH1) and the construction of the new control cabin (June-July). From July, painting, installation of all the fluids, electrical and network cables, safety control system etc… Only a few more weeks to go!

The 5^th June was the World Environment Day. To celebrate the event, ESRF published an article on photovoltaic cells, which is focused on perovskites studies carried out at the ESRF. One of the cited studies took place at XMaS. The work resulted from a collaboration between the University of Sheffield, University of Cambridge, Cardiff University, University of Oxford, University of Warwick and also the Khalifa University of Science and Technology (formerly Masdar Institute, United Arab Emirates). The full article can be viewed here.

May 16^th marked the first day of the XMaS beamline upgrade in the context of the ESRF Extremely Brilliant Source (EBS) project. The first part of the XMaS upgrade consists in extending the length of the present experimental hutch by about 4 m to accommodate the new source position in the upgraded storage ring. The new experimental hutch will occupy the space of the present control cabin. The control cabin will subsequently move 4 m back too and be located close to the offline x-ray source facility.

The XMaS diffractometer being craned out of the experimental hutch. First time in 20 years!

The flying XMaS diffractometer!

The experimental hutch without the diffractometer …

- a panoramic view of the experimental hutch

XMaS, the UK-CRG beamline at the ESRF supported by EPSRC. Credit: O. Bikondoa/ XMaS-ESRF (France)

- some of the beamline equipment:

In-situ photovoltaics fabrication at XMaS/ESRF. Credit: S. Lilliu/ XMaS-ESRF (France)

Magnetic WAXS/SAXS setup at XMaS-ESRF. Credit: L. Bouchenoire/ XMaS-ESRF (France)

Bill Stirling, the co-originator of the XMaS project with Malcolm Cooper, was awarded the prestigious title of Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George for services to British science and international science collaboration.

See HERE

The quinquennial ESRF review of XMaS took place the 7-8 November 2017 followed by a presentation of the beamline to the ESRF Science Advisory Committee (SAC) on Friday 10th November.

Complex modulated magnetism in PrPtAl
Andrew Huxley et al., University of Edinburgh, UK
www.esrf.fr/Apache_files/Highlights/HL2015.pdf