In April 1997, two centers were newly established by reorganization of Instrument Center, Chemical Materials Center, and Low-Temperature Center. This section describes the latest equipment and activities of all research facilities including these new centers. For further information please refer to older IMS Annual Review issues (1978 - 1996).
The main computers at the Center are a supercomputer NEC SX-3/34R, NEC HSP (High Speed Scalar Processor) and IBM SP2. The computers are linked to international networks through Science Information Network (SINET). About 30% of the computer time is used by the research staff at IMS, and the remaining 70% is given out as research grants to scientists outside the institute in molecular science and related field. As of March 1996, the number of project group was 201, consisting of 712 users. In September, 1996, the NEC High Performance Computing (HPC) Server was installed. The library programs of the Center amount to 805. Among them, more than 200 programs can be executed immediately. Recent additions include GAUSSIAN 94-Linda and MOLPRO96 electronic structure codes for IBM SP2. The Quantum Chemistry Literature Database (QCLDB) has been developed by the Center in collaboration with the QCLDB group.
This center was established by reorganization of a part of Instrument Center. Catching to the world trends in the laser spectroscopy, the Laser Research Center have newly equipped profitable all solid state light sources in various temporal and spectral regions, including femtosecond and nanosecond Optical Parametric Oscillators (OPO). The synchronously femtosecond OPO (OPAL; SPECTRA PHYSICS) is tunable from 1.1 mm up to 1.6 mm. The nanosecond OPO has extraordinary tuning range form 420 nm down to 2.2 mm. The Laser Research Center also replaced fluorescence analyzer (FLUOROLOG2; SPEX) which is composed of a xenon lamp house, a double monochromator which makes lamp beam monochromatic, and a single monochromator for spectroscopy. The detector is changeable by rotating a mirror (CCD and PM). Using these instrument, one can carry out various experiments in not only the ultrafast temporal region but also steady state photon counting region.
This center was established by reorganization of Chemical Materials Center, Low-Temperature Center, and a part of Instrument Center. This center plays an important role in the synthesis and purification of chemical substances. Upon request, technicians carry out elemental and mass spectrometric analyses. Laboratory waste matters are also managed here. This center continues the task of Low-Temperature Center which supplies liquid helium and liquid nitrogen to the users in IMS. The total amount of liquid helium and nitrogen supplied from June, 1996 to May, 1997 were 47,233 and 79,004.2 L, respectively. The helium liquefier broke down in November, 1995. The cause was elucidated mainly in a Technical Division project. After the repair in December, 1996, the machine is working well. Automatic four-cycle X-ray diffractometer (Rigaku AFC-7R) and Imaging-Plate X-ray diffractometer (Rigaku R-Axis IV) equipped in 1996 are now available for general users.
A number of research instruments have been designed and constructed at the mechanical, electronic and glass work sections in this Facility. Some examples of our works in this fiscal year of 1996 are listed below.
Equipment Development Center has the division of IMS Machines. Activity of this division is described in detail in section "RESEARCH ACTIVITIES."
The UVSOR accelerator complex consists of a 15 MeV injector linac, a 600 MeV booster synchrotron, and a 750 MeV storage ring. As additional devices, a higher harmonic cavity, a superconducting wiggler, and undulators are installed. A harmonic cavity was commissioned in Spring 1993 to suppress longitudinal coupled-bunch instability by Landau damping. The double rf system is routinely operated for user beam time, and the lifetime of the beam has been improved to about 5 hours at 200 mA. The superconducting wiggler is a wavelength shifter type and the maximum magnetic field is 4T to supply intense soft x-rays. Since trouble in helium leakage from the refrigirator was fixed in 1994, the wiggler became operational. It is used for about one half of the user beam time in 1996. The storage ring was devided into four sections by gate valves in Spring 1995 in order to make a scheduled shutdown easier. The baking system was also replaced by new one including a controllable indirect heating. The rf power amplifier systems of the booster synchrotron and the storage ring were renewed to solid-state systems in 1996 in order to have more stable operation and easier maintenance. A helical undulator was installed to one of the four straight sections of the storage ring in 1996 to provide circularly polarized lights in the energy range of 5-250 eV. An optional version of the helical undulator is a helical optical kryostron, which is powerful for a free electron laser (FEL) experiment.
Nineteen experimental stations are now operational. They are two soft-x-ray stations equipped with a double-crystal monochromator, five extreme ultraviolet stations with a glancing incidence or a plane-grating monochromator, five vacuum-ultraviolet stations with a Seya-Namioka-type or a normal incidence-type monochromator, two (far) infrared stations equipped with a FT interferometer, and four white-light stations without monochromator. About one third of beamlines are upgraded in a couple of years. A Seya-Namioka monochromator at beamline 7B is being replaced by a normal-incidence monochromator to improve a resolving power and spectral range for solid state spectroscopy. Another one at beamline 2B2 is under replacement by a Dragon-type monochromator for gaseous experiments in VUV and EUV ranges. A multi-layer monochromator is also under installation to beamline 4A for photo-chemical reaction experiments. A glancing-incidence monochromator at BL8B1 has been replaced by a 15 m SGM monochromator. This new monochromator having a resolving power of 4,000 at 400 eV is used for solid and gaseous experiments in EUV region. A Bruker FT-IR interferometer has been installed to beamline 6A1 besides the old FT-FIR of a Martin-Puplett type, and then the improved system can cover the wide wavelength range from 1 mm to 3 mm. A new monochromator (SGM-TRAIN) has been constructed at beamline 5A for the use of cirlularly polarized lights from the helical undulator.
The UVSOR was shutdown from March to April in 1997 to fix the water leakage of the building. Since all the machines are located under ground, and also the UVSOR is fifteen years old, the maintenance of the building and utilities is very important.
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