Information for Users

Preparing for Your Experiment

You will receive an email from the ESRF user office several months before your experiment. This will confirm the dates of your experiment and confirm your local contact. To ensure that the beamline is setup quickly and smoothly for your experiments, it would be appreciated if you could liaise with the local contact prior to your arrival.

XMaS will support up to 3 (and in extremis 4) users per experiment. This is not a restriction on the number of experimentalists, but you should make your own budgetary arrangements for those in excess of 3.

The ESRF guesthouse still appears adequate to accommodate all our users, though CRG users will always have a lower priority than the ESRF's own users. Do remember to complete the web-based "A form" requested of you when you receive the ESRF invitation. All attendees must be listed, since this informs the safety group of the attendees and is used to organise all site passes, meal cards and accommodation.

To ensure your reservation in the ESRF guesthouse, it is recommended that you fill in the A-form as soon as possible.

End of Run Survey

Please support us by completing your end of run survey at the end of your experiment.

Click to complete!

Travel Information

Arriving by plane - Lyon International Airport

Lyon International Airport (Saint-Exupéry airport) is the most convenient airport, at one hour’s drive from Grenoble. On arrival at the airport, take the airport shuttle bus ("Navette Aéroport") at Terminal 1, direction Grenoble Presqu’île if you want to go directly to the ESRF.

It is necessary to pre-book tickets online.

Once at the stop Grenoble Presqu’île, follow the blue way indicated below, by foot…you are nearly there (~10 min walk).

Arriving by Train

After arriving at Grenoble railway station (this is also the final stop of the shuttle bus from the airport), take the tram (line B, direction Oxford) to the final stop on the line ("Presqu’île") and follow the blue line on the above map to walk to the EPN Campus site entrance.

Tram ticket prices are:
1 trip (ticket is valid for one hour) - €2.00
1 trip via SMS (send "1H" to 93 123) - €2.50
1 day unlimited trips - €6.40
10 trips - €15.70

For more information on the tram system in Grenoble, please visit their websiteLink opens in a new window.

Travel by Taxi

To ask for a taxi, call+33 (0)476544254or www.taxi-grenoble38.frLink opens in a new window

Expenses

Expenses Claim Form for CRG Time

All Claim Forms should be signed and submitted as a PDF to: xmas@warwick.ac.uk

Please submit you expense claim forms within 3 months of your experiment.

Please note we do not accept bank statements or credit card statements as proof of payment.

XMaS will also cover sample shipping and visa costs if required.

Per Diem:

The living allowance is 90 € per day per beamline user from the start to the end of your experiment.
The per diem covers accommodation at the ESRF and all food.

For Warwick Employees & Students:

If you are a Warwick student or employee please use this Per Diem FormLink opens in a new window and send to
xmas@warwick.ac.uk
As per diem is calculated based on arrival and departure time, please include your travel receipts, as well as a copy of your Guesthouse booking, with the per diem form. We do not need individual food purchase receipts.
All travel must be submitted via Concur.

For Users Who Are Not Warwick Employees:

Please complete the Expenses Claim FormLink opens in a new window. Once complete, sign and send as a PDF to
xmas@warwick.ac.uk
Please ensure all receipts are are attached and numbered in correlation to the Claim Form.
Please include a copy of your Guesthouse booking. We do not need individual food purchase receipts.
For Euro or Dollar exchanges, please use the UoW Exchange RateLink opens in a new window. Please use the Exchange Rate that was valid at the start of your experiment.
For any other currency conversions, please use OANDALink opens in a new window and include a screen shot of these rates.
Incorrect forms or those missing required information will be returned.

Foreign Payment Form:

For anyone with a Non-UK Bank Account, please also complete the Foreign Payments FormLink opens in a new window.

Forms:

UoW Staff & Student Per Diem Form Expenses Claim Form Foreign Payment Form Example Claim Form

Links:

University of Warwick Exchange Rate OANDA Currency Converter

ESRF Experiments:

These claim forms are for CRG user beamtime, not ESRF experiments.

ESRF covers all the expenses (travel, accommodation, meals) during public beam time.

ESRF Beamtime Information

Visas

If you hold a Passport from a Non-European Country, you may need a Visa to gain entry to France. Check if you need a Visa hereLink opens in a new window.

Before making a request for a Visa and a 'Convention d'Accueil' (hosting agreement for a foreign researcher), the Principal Investigator of the experiment should complete the A-form with the names of the users coming to the ESRF. It is critical at this point that each user makes sure his/her safety training is up to date.

Once your A-form is completed, you can contact the CRG office at the ESRF (copying in Laurence Bouchenoire) to request your 'Convention d'Accueil'. The CRG office will use part of the information contained in the the A-form in addition to those detailed in the link below:

https://www.esrf.fr/cms/live/live/en/sites/www/home/UsersAndScience/UserGuide/Preparing/VisaRequirements.html

Current Schedule Beamline Manual

Beamline Manual

There is an extensive section of Manuals and How-To'sLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window on the XMaS wiki server accessible from the beamline or within the ESRF firewall.

If you are running an experiment at XMaS, we encourage you to have a look at these pages.

There is also some guides available hereLink opens in a new window.

If you have a problem on the beamline, you may find the solution in there. If you are outside the ESRF firewall and desperately need some information you found on the XMaS wiki, please contactLink opens in a new window one of us with your request.

Experimental Reports

Prepare and submit an experiment report for an XMaS Experiment

In addition to the end of run survey, users are required to submit an experimental report for each experiment performed on the beamline. This report must be uploaded within 3 months of an experiment being completed. All experiment will remain confidential for 3 years after which they will be made public via the DOI landing page on the ESRF data portal. During the embargo period, the report will only be accessible to the proposers and any beamtime participants, as well as to the ESRF and XMaS proposal review panels. Experimental reports are considered by the peer review panels and the lack of a report, especially for follow-on studies may deleteriously impact the ranking of future applications for beamtime.

Follow these 4 steps to submit your report:

Download the experiment report template
Create your report from the template, following certain requirements
Upload your report document as a PDF in the User Portal (SMIS)
(If desired) Link your report to a new proposal

1. Download template

2. Complete report

For work which is published or which is in press, you may simply insert a copy of the abstract, together with full reference details into the report form.
Make sure the report does not exceed the space in the template.
Use a font size of 12 points or larger for the text.
Leave a minimum of 2 mm space between the text and the lines of the form.
Include tables and figures if you wish.
Pay special attention to figures:
1. Group pictures so that they form the smallest amount of contiguous space (as shown here in an example)
  
  Figure 1
  
  Figure 2
  
  Figure 3
2. Mention each figure in the main report text.
3. Individual figures should not be more than half the width of the page and at a suitable resolution.
4. Text on figures should be readable.
Save the file as a PDF.

A report may cover multiple experimental sessions. You can specify which sessions are covered by the report when you upload the file.

The User Portal can only accept files in PDF format.

3. Upload report

Upload your experiment report document (in PDF format) by attaching it to the appropriate proposal in the User Portal:

Access the User Portal Link opens in a new window(SMIS).
Navigate to the list of your validated proposals.
In the row for the appropriate proposal, click the icon marked "Manage your Experiment Report" (far right).
On the next screen (Submit Experiment Report), select the experimental session(s) you are reporting on.
Browse to and upload your experiment report document.

An added file can only be replaced, not removed.

4. Link the report to the new proposal

To link the submitted report to a new proposal:

go to the 'General' screen of your new proposal.
in the ‘relevant reports’ section, specify the number of your previous experiment.

Web Links

Some useful links can be found below:

X-ray interactions with matter

CXRO website

International Union of Crystallography

www.iucr.org

Periodic Table of the Elements

www.webelements.com/index.html

Online ESRF "SPEC" manual

One of many ESRF "SPEC" documentation

Certified Scientific Software

Official "SPEC" website

NPL Multiferroics wiki

Good starting point with Instrumentation and Good Practice guides

ESRF Data Analysis Software

Scientific software list

Other synchrotron sources

Lightsources website

Beamline links:

Beamline Wiki (note: this is only available inside the ESRF firewall).

Software for processing and analyzing X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy data

LARCH

Data Analysis Tools for X-ray Spectroscopy

[Now contains all the features of Demeter and is much more actively being developed and maintained]

Newville, 2013. Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 430(1), 012007

DEMETER

XANES/EXAFS data analysis

[Not supported anymore]

Ravel, Newville, 2005. Journal of synchrotron radiation, 12(4),537-541

IFEFFIT

XANES/EXAFS data analysis

[Not supported anymore]

Ravel, Newville, 2005. Journal of synchrotron radiation, 12(4),537-541

XAFS spectra simulation software

FDMNES

Finite Difference Method Near Edge Structure uses the density functional theory (DFT)

FDMNES workshop

Bunau, Joly, 2009. J. Phys.: Condens. Matter, 21, 345501

Bourke et al., 2016. J. Synchrotron Rad., 23, 551-559

FEFF9

Ab initio multiple scattering calculations of XANES and EXAFS spectra

Rehr et al., 2010. Phys. Chem., 12, 5503-5513

Rehr, 2009. Comptes Rendus Physique, 10 (6), 548-559

Rehr et al., 2000. Rev. Mod. Phys., 72, 621

Spectroscopy Database

Solid Spectroscopy Hosting Architecture of Databases and Expertise

(SSHADE)

We recommend adding all your spectra to this database once published.

Educational resources

XAS education resources are available at https://www.xafs.org/ and https://bruceravel.github.io/XAS-Education/

Bruce Ravel XAS course 2011: https://www.diamond.ac.uk/Instruments/Spectroscopy/Techniques/XAS.html

Link opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window

XMaS: The UK Materials Science Facility at the ESRF