Skip to main content Skip to navigation

Project History

25 years of XMaS

2022 marks the 25th anniversary of the operation of the UK’s XMaS (X-ray Materials Science) user facility at the European Synchrotron Research Facility (ESRF) in Grenoble, France.

It has been directed for all that time from University of Warwick and Liverpool Physics Departments and has provided hundreds of UK scientists (and many from further afield) with the opportunity to do leading research in a truly world-leading international centre.

The beamline was to be for “Magnetic and High Resolution Diffraction”. An 18-month design study was funded and begun in March 1992: the evolution of the design considerations are described in Paul et al. Rev. Sci. Instr. 66, 1741-5, (1995). After advice from a review panel chaired by Denis McWhan, the two mirror design, which would have maximized the wave-vector resolution attainable, was rejected in favour of simpler optics consisting of a water cooled constant exit double-crystal monochromator, followed by a toroidal mirror, which provided a focal spot with a 1:1 focussing at the centre of a multi-axis diffractometer. Provision was also made for unfocussed monochromatic and white beam operation.