News for International X-ray Analysis Community

On Friday 2 December 2011, an unknown painting by Rembrandt was presented in the Rembrandt House Museum (Amsterdam).  The small panel, Old Man with a Beard, was painted by Rembrandt around 1630, at the end of his time in Leiden.  A research group led by Professor K. Janssens (University of Antwerp) and Professor J. Dik (Delft University of Technology) has performed experimental studies on this painting with a synchrotron beam at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) and the Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), and has unveiled a hidden, unfinished self-portrait below the painting.  For further information, visit the web page, http://webh01.ua.ac.be/mitac4/rembrandt/index_301111.html

Recently, a very stimulating paper has been published discussing experimentally the fundamental processes of photo-absorption and excitation of electrons by using extremely high-fluence, ultra-short X-ray pulses.  The research was done for the electron system in inert Ne gas at LCLS (Linac Coherent Light Source), Stanford, USA, which is the world's first hard X-ray free-electron laser facility.  The scheme is as follows: an intense single X-ray pulse of sub-10-fs duration at 848 eV first strips a 2p electron from Ne and, at this stage, since the X-ray energy is below the binding energy of a 1s electron in neutral neon, 870 eV, a 1s hole cannot be produced, but because of the above 2p hole, the next pulse can excite the 1s electron, leading to 1s-2p resonance in the Ne⁺ ion and, finally, stimulated emission (2p-1s) competes with Auger decay to refill the 1s hole.  The results have indicated that intense X-ray pulses of sub-10-fs duration can modify and even control the Auger decay process.  For more information, see the paper, "Unveiling and Driving Hidden Resonances with High-Fluence, High-Intensity X-Ray Pulses", E. P. Kanter et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 233001 (2011).

BaTiO₃ is a promising candidate ferroelectric material for magnetoelectric composites and layered film structures.  Recently, some interesting soft X-ray absorption spectra at Ti-L_{II, III} , O-K, and Ba-M_{IV, V} edges have been discussed mainly from a theoretical point of view by a German group.  For more information, see the paper, "High-resolution x-ray absorption spectroscopy of BaTiO₃: Experiment and first-principles calculations", A. Chassֺé et al., Phys. Rev. B84, 195135 (2011).

Multi-wavelength anomalous diffraction (MAD) has been widely employed to determine phase information in X-ray crystallography.  The method uses the contrast of the scattering power of heavy atoms at the absorption edges.  However, when the X-ray source becomes extremely brilliant, the sample encounters severe electronic radiation damage, especially to heavy atoms, which makes the interpretation of MAD rather difficult.  Recently, a theoretical paper discussing this problem has been published.  The theory uses a Karle-Hendrickson-type equation in the high-intensity regime, and demonstrates the calculation of relevant coefficients with detailed electronic damage dynamics of heavy atoms.  For more information, see the paper, "Multiwavelength Anomalous Diffraction at High X-Ray Intensity", S-K.Son et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 218102 (2011).

The recipient of the 6th Asada Award, which is presented by the Discussion Group of X-ray Analysis, Japan, in memory of the late Professor Ei-ichi Asada (1924-2005) to promising young scientists in X-ray analysis fields in Japan, is Dr. Takashi Yamamoto (Tokushima Univ., "Studies on pre-edge peak in XANES spectra of transition metals for empirical chemical state analysis").  The ceremony was held during the 47th Annual Conference on X-Ray Chemical Analysis, Japan, at Kyushu University, Fukuoka.

Professor J. Kawai (Kyoto University, Japan; Associate editor of X-ray Spectrometry) and his colleagues recently developed a novel tiny X-ray instrument equipped with a pyroelectric LiTaO₃ crystal as an electron source, a sample stage and an X-ray detector.  The research group found that adequate X-ray fluorescence spectra can be measured for 0.03 mm² titanium, iron, and nickel wires.  For more information, see the paper, "Development of Miniaturized Electron Probe X-ray Microanalyzer", S. Imashuku et al., Anal. Chem., 83, 8363 (2011).

Empirical and semiempirical K-shell fluorescence yields (ωK) and Kβ/Kα intensity ratios for ZnCo alloy with various chemical compositions, leading to differences in pH, have recently been published.  The samples were excited by 59.5-keV γ rays from a ²⁴¹Am annular radioactive source, and X ray fluorescence spectra were measured by an Ultra-LEGe detector.  For more information, see the paper, "Effect of pH treatment on K-shell x-ray intensity ratios and K-shell x-ray-production cross sections in ZnCo alloys", N. Kup Aylikci et al., Phys. Rev. A84, 042509 (2011).

European XFEL and the Spanish Center for Ultrashort Ultraintense Pulsed Lasers (CLPU) in Salamanca will pool their efforts to promote research into high-energy density science and to develop new ultrafast lasers to analyze physical and chemical processes in conjunction with the X-ray beams of the European XFEL.  Both research institutions signed a memorandum of understanding at the European XFEL headquarters in Hamburg.  In the framework of this cooperation, an optical laser expert from CLPU has now joined the European XFEL Optical Lasers Group for an initial period of six months.  For further information, visit the web page,  http://www.xfel.eu/

A German group led by Dr. B. Beckhoff (Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), Berlin) recently analyzed quantitatively the buried B₄C nanolayer on a silicon substrate by using synchrotron radiation at BESSY II.  The thickness and elemental composition were successfully determined by reference-free X-ray fluorescence spectrometry under conventional and grazing-incidence conditions.  For more information, see the paper, "Complementary Characterization of Buried Nanolayers by Quantitative X-ray Fluorescence Spectrometry under Conventional and Grazing Incidence Conditions", R. Unterumsberger et al., Anal. Chem., 83, 8623 (2011).

A Korean group led by Professor J. H. Je (Pohang University of Science and Technology) has recently reported some interesting experiments on water vaporization by X-ray photons.  The experiments were done at the undulator beamline, XSD 32-ID, Advanced Photon Source in Argonne, USA.  It was found that water is vaporized at a rate of 5.5 pL/sec at a 100 msec exposure of 1-Å-wavelength (~13 keV) X-ray irradiation of around 10⁷ photons/μm² (0.1 photons/Ų), which corresponds to a dose rate of ~50 kGy/sec.  They also confirmed that water vapor is reversibly condensed during pauses in irradiation.  This result suggests that photoionization induces vaporization through the reduction of the surface tension of water.  For more information, see the paper, "X-ray-induced water vaporization", B. M. Weon et al., Phys. Rev. E84, 032601 (2011).

The European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and the European XFEL have signed a Memorandum of Understanding, thereby laying the foundation for close future collaboration in deciphering the structure and dynamics of biomolecules.  For further information, visit the Web page, http://www.xfel.eu/

Most living vertebrates are jawed vertebrates (gnathostomes), and only scarce information on the evolutionary origin of jaws is available from living jawless vertebrates (cyclostomes), hagfishes and lampreys.  The extinct bony jawless vertebrates, or 'ostracoderms', have been regarded as precursors of jawed vertebrates and provide an insight into this formative episode in vertebrate evolution. Very recently, Chinese scientists employed synchrotron radiation X-ray tomography in an effort to analyze the cranial anatomy of galeaspids, a 370-435-million-year-old 'ostracoderm' group from China and Vietnam.  For more information, see the paper, "Fossil jawless fish from China foreshadows early jawed vertebrate anatomy", Z. Gai et al., Nature 476, 324 (2011).

Professor J. R. Engstrom (Cornell University) and his colleagues have recently published a detailed comparative study on surface morphology obtained from in-situ, time-resolved X-ray reflectivity, which is extremely feasible as a tool for investigating surface and interfaces during thin film growth, but requires some modeling of the growth process for the interpretation.  The research group prepared two sets of organic thin films, pentacene/SiO₂ and diindenoperylene SiO₂; for each system, giving a total of four films, grown to different thicknesses, under nominally identical conditions.  The X-ray reflectivity data were analyzed based on three different models, and the obtained parameters were directly compared with AFM data.  It was found that all models employed can give good agreement between the surface morphology obtained from fits with the actual morphology at early times.  On the other hand, this agreement deteriorates at later times, once the root-mean squared (rms) film roughness exceeds about 1 monolayer.  It was also found that the best fits to reflectivity data, corresponding to the lowest values of χ², do not necessarily yield the best agreement between simulated and measured surface morphologies, simply because the model reproduces all local extrema in the data.  For more information, see the paper, "Quantitative modeling of in situ x-ray reflectivity during organic molecule thin film growth", A. R. Woll et al., Phys. Rev. B84, 075479 (2011).

The following awards were presented during the plenary session of the 60th Annual Denver X-Ray Conference: The 2011 Barrett Award was presented to Dr. Juan Rodriques-Carvajal, Institute Laue-Langevin, Grenoble, France to honor his exceptional contributions to the field of X-ray diffraction, in particular for his work on characterization of the structural and magnetic properties of strongly correlated oxides using diffraction techniques and for writing and freely disseminating FULLPROF, the most widely used Rietveld refinement program for analysis of crystallographic and magnetic structures.  The 2011 Jenkins Award was given to Dr. Paul K. Predecki to honor his contributions to the development of X-ray methods for a wide variety of materials, and his generosity in teaching and inspiring others in X-ray materials analysis both at the University of Denver and through organization and management of the Denver X-ray Conference.  The 2011 Jerome B. Cohen Student Award was given to Vallerie Ann Innis-Samson, University of Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan, for her work, X-ray Reflection Tomography: A New Tool for Surface Imaging.  For further information, visit the Web page, http://www.dxcicdd.com/

X-ray spectroscopy is an extremely strong tool for metal speciation at the molecular level in biological and environmental samples, especially for metalloproteins.  When samples are quite easily influenced by photoreduction, however, analysis has not been straightforward.  Recently, a Chinese group has studied in detail soft X-ray induced photoreduction in organic Cu(II) compounds.  The research team measured XANES spectra at Cu-LIII, O-K, and C-K edges to see how the valence state of Cu changes.  A scanning transmission X-ray microscopy was also employed to look at specific radiation damages.  It was found that reducing the radiation dose to 0.1 MGy effectively prevented the photoreduction of organic Cu(II) compounds.  For more information, see the paper, "Soft X-ray Induced Photoreduction of Organic Cu(II) Compounds Probed by X-ray Absorption Near-Edge (XANES) Spectroscopy", J. Yang et al., Anal. Chem., Article ASAP (DOI: 10.1021/ac201622g  Publication Date (Web): August 1, 2011).

An innovative X-ray camera, designed to record bursts of images at an unprecedented speed of 4.5million frames per second, is being built with the help of the UK's Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) and will be delivered to the European XFEL (X-ray Free-Electron Laser) in 2012.  For further information, visit the Web page, http://www.stfc.ac.uk/About%20STFC/36221.aspx

Parametric down-conversion is a quantum-optical process in which a 'pump' photon splits spontaneously into two (the 'signal' and 'idler') in a nonlinear optical medium.  Recently, Professor T. Ishikawa (RIKEN, Harima, Japan) and his colleagues reported their experiments with X-ray photons.  They have visualized three-dimensionally the local optical response of diamond at wavelengths between 103 and 206 Å with a resolution as fine as 0.54 Å.  This corresponds to a resolution from λ/190 to λ/380, an order of magnitude that is the best ever achieved.  For more information, see the paper, "Visualizing the local optical response to extreme-ultraviolet radiation with a resolution of λ/380", K. Tamasaku et al., Nature Physics 7, 705 (2011).

So far, because of the difficulty of creating a target of neutral atomic nitrogen, there have been no reports on the details of high-resolution K-edge spectra.  Recently, scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have performed both experimental and theoretical studies on the strong 1s→np resonance features throughout the threshold region.  The absolute value of the K-shell binding energy was experimentally obtained for the first time, and it was 409.64±0.02 eV.  For more information, see the paper, "K-Shell X-Ray Spectroscopy of Atomic Nitrogen", M. M. Sant'Anna et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 033001 (2011).

Professor K. F. Ludwig (Boston University, USA) and his colleagues have recently reported their real-time X-ray scattering studies on heterogeneous microscale dynamics in the martensitic phase transition of cobalt.  During the transformation of the high-temperature fcc phase to the low-temperature hcp phase, first, a rapid local transformation happens, and then, strains are relaxed slowly.  The research group employed coherent X-ray scattering measurements to see the latter part of the transformation.  It was found that the kinetics is dominated by discontinuous sudden changes - avalanches.  The spatial size of observed avalanches varies widely, from 100 nm to 10μm, the size of the X-ray beam.  For more information, see the paper, "Direct Measurement of Microstructural Avalanches during the Martensitic Transition of Cobalt Using Coherent X-Ray Scattering", C. Sanborn et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 015702 (2011).

The European XFEL under construction at Hamburg in Germany aims to have the first beam ready in 2015.  Very recently, it was found that the design parameters can be further improved.  The first revision is to the energy range.  This will now be 260 eV - 25 keV, while the 2006 design was 800 eV - 12.4 keV.  The second is X-ray pulse duration.  This will become of variable duration from a few femtoseconds (fs) to about 100 fs, instead of about 100 fs only.  Such upgrades will be realized by improving electron beam quality by building on the experience with the X-ray free-electron laser at Stanford.  For further information, visit the Web page, http://www.xfel.eu/news/2011/x_ray_flashes_revised/

The Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of 972 texts from the Hebrew Bible and extra-biblical documents found between 1947 and 1956 at Khirbet Qumran on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea from which it derives its name, in the British Mandate for Palestine, in what is now named the West Bank.  Recently, a research group led by Professor B. Kanngiesser (Technische Universität Berlin, Germany) has investigated the feasibility of merging two X-ray techniques, ordinary micro XRF and confocal 3D micro XRF for optimized analysis of highly inhomogeneous samples such as the Dead Sea Scrolls.  Ordinary micro XRF lacks information on the depth, but the measurement is efficient and rather quick.  On the other hand, confocal 3D micro XRF has depth resolution, but the measurement takes very long.  The authors found that the reliability of the analysis of highly heterogeneous samples can be improved by quantitatively combining both data.  For more information, see the paper, "3D Micro-XRF for Cultural Heritage Objects: New Analysis Strategies for the Investigation of the Dead Sea Scrolls", I. Mantouvalou et al., Anal. Chem., Article ASAP (DOI: 10.1021/ac2011262  Publication Date (Web): June 29, 2011).

A research group led by Professor L. Vincze (Ghent University, Belgium) has recently reported the interesting analysis of 1-20 μm sized inclusions in natural diamond crystals from Rio Soriso (Juina area, Mato Grosso State, Brazil).  The crystals are called ultra-deep diamond, because they were formed in the astenospheric upper mantle, the transition zone (410-670 km), and even the lower mantle (>670 km) of the Earth.  The experiment is basically 3D imaging by confocal X-ray fluorescence suing synchrotron radiation.  By scanning X-ray energy near the Mn and Fe K absorption edges, the authors obtained chemical information on the inclusion cloud in the crystal.  It was found that the observed Fe-rich inclusions were ferropericlase (Fe,Mg)O, hematite and a mixture of these two minerals.  Another finding was that significant overprint of inclusions along pre-existing planar features is possible without changing their outer shape.  For more information, see the paper, "Three-Dimensional Fe Speciation of an Inclusion Cloud within an Ultradeep Diamond by Confocal μ-X-ray Absorption Near Edge Structure: Evidence for Late Stage Overprint", G. Silversmit et al., Anal. Chem., Article ASAP (DOI: 10.1021/ac201073s  Publication Date (Web): June 27, 2011).

When laser light hits thin solid foil, one can obtain soft X-rays, and this is sometimes called a laser plasma X-ray source.  When the peak power of the laser becomes extremely high by shortening the pulse duration, it is also possible to observe hard X-ray spectra including Kα and Kβ emission.  A team at Sandia National Laboratory has recently reported some calculations on the efficiency of Kα emission.  The conversion efficiency of laser energy into Kα X-ray energy is clearly a critical parameter for designing an X-ray source.  Basically the value is fairly small, but the team's simulations indicate that an enhancement of efficiency greater than tenfold over conventional single targets may be possible by introducing a two-phase target concept.  For more information, see the paper, "Efficiency Enhancement for Kα X-Ray Yields from Laser-Driven Relativistic Electrons in Solids", A. B. Sefkow et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 235002 (2011).

A Swiss group has recently published many interesting chemical images of trace elements in heterogeneous media.  The authors combined several techniques; laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICPMS), synchrotron radiation based micro-X-ray fluorescence and extended X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy.  The analysis was done for Opalinus clay, which has been proposed as the host rock for high-level radioactive waste repositories.  2D images were shown for the matrix elements Ca, Fe, and Ti, as well as for the trace element, Cs.  The synchrotron experiments were performed at Sector 20 (PNC-CAT), Advanced Photon Source (APS), and microXAS beamline at the Swiss Light Source (SLS).  The beam size was 4×3 μm² and 3×3 μm², respectively.  For more information, see the paper, "Quantitative Chemical Imaging of Element Diffusion into Heterogeneous Media Using Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry, Synchrotron Micro-X-ray Fluorescence, and Extended X-ray Absorption Fine Structure Spectroscopy", H. A. O. Wang et al., Anal. Chem., Article ASAP (DOI: 10.1021/ac200899x  Publication Date (Web): May 31, 2011).

As reported in the previous news article, "Influence of the M9 class earthquake on synchrotron facilities in Japan", No.3, Vol. 40 (2011)), the Photon Factory, located to the north of Tsukuba city in Ibaraki prefecture, had to cancel all beamtime allocated in the term from May to September 2011.  However, scientists have devoted a great deal of time and effort to recovery work, and on May 16, the ring became capable of storing electron beams, and generating synchrotron radiation.  Recovery commissioning at each beamline started in the 4^th week of May.  Many users are involved in test experiments with their own samples.  Some readers may be interested in the status of BL-4A, which is the beamline for X-ray fluorescence spectroscopic analysis.  Recovery at the beamline appears more or less complete. Some data taken on March 10, one day before the earthquake, were reproduced almost perfectly.  Commissioning will continue until early July.  For further information, visit the Web page, http://www.kek.jp/ja/news/highlights/2011/PF_recovery.html (only in Japanese language).

Professor J. N. Anker (Clemson University, South Carolina, United States) and his colleagues have recently reported an interesting application of optical luminescence excited by X-rays.  So far, the spatial resolution of conventional florescence microscopy for tissue has been fairly limited.  This is mainly due to the spread of the excitation light, which is scattered by the sample itself, particularly in the case of thick tissue.  The novel idea is to use X-ray excited optical luminescent light from the scintillator plate placed at the back of the tissue.  X-rays are not scattered very much even in thick tissue, and such a small spread leads to high-resolution chemical imaging of the tissue.  The authors demonstrated an interesting application as a pH imager using methyl-red dyed paper.  For more information, see the paper, "High-Resolution Chemical Imaging through Tissue with an X-ray Scintillator Sensor", H. Chen et al., Anal. Chem., 83, 5045 (2011).

Inelastic X-ray scattering is a powerful modern tool to study lattice dynamics of condensed matter.  Recently an international team led by Dr. J. Serrano (Polytechnic University of Catalonia, Spain) has tried to extend the technique to several micron-thick systems by introducing grazing-incidence geometry.  Their sample is indium nitride grown on a sapphire substrate with a gallium nitride buffer layer inbetween, but X-rays only probe the surface, and not the substrate underneath.  The analysis was combined with ab initio calculations to determine the complete elastic stiffness tensor, the acoustic and low-energy optic phonon dispersion relations.  This finding could be a help in developing new types of solar cells.  For more information, see the paper, "InN Thin Film Lattice Dynamics by Grazing Incidence Inelastic X-Ray Scattering", J. Serrano et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 205501 (2011).

An interesting theoretical paper on the calculation of K edge resonant X-ray emission spectroscopy has been published recently.  The crystalline band structure was calculated using a quasiparticle self-consistent GW implementation, and then coherent spectra were obtained in the Kramers-Heisenberg formalism.  The calculated results for ZnO were compared with experiments.  For more information, see the paper, "First-principles calculation of resonant x-ray emission spectra applied to ZnO", A. R. H. Preston et al., Phys. Rev. B83, 205106 (2011).

A research team led by Professor J. Stohr (SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Stanford, USA) has recently performed time-resolved scanning transmission X-ray microscopy measurements to study the current-induced magnetization switching mechanism in nanopillars exhibiting strong perpendicular magnetic anisotropy.  Because of both the short-time (70 ps) and high-spatial (25 nm) resolutions of this imaging technique, the detailed mechanism has become clear as follows; after an incubation time of ~1.3 ns, a 100×300nm² ellipsoidal device switches in ~1 ns via a central domain nucleation and opposite propagation of two domain walls toward the edges.  For further understanding, micromagnetic simulations were done and shown as being in good agreement with experiments.  For more information, see the paper, "Nonuniform switching of the perpendicular magnetization in a spin-torque-driven magnetic nanopillar", D. P. Bernstein et al., Phys. Rev. B83, 180410(R) (2011).

A research team led by Dr. L. Robinet (Synchrotron Soleil, Saint Aubin, France) has recently published an interesting paper describing how the blue pigment, smalt, has faded in many famous paintings such as "The Heavenly and Earthly Trinities (The Pedroso Murillo)" by Bartolome Esteban Perez Murillo.  The experiment was basically X-ray absorption spectroscopy near the Co K edge.  The samples were tiny pieces taken from the original paintings archived in the National Gallery, London and the Louvre Museum, Paris.  It was found that in intense blue particles the cobalt is predominantly present as Co²⁺ in tetrahedral coordination, while in colorless altered smalt the Co²⁺ coordination number in the glass structure is increased, and there is a transformation from tetrahedral towards octahedral coordination.  This change correlates with the alkali content as well, indicating that it is caused by leaching of potassium cations, which act as charge-compensators and stabilize the tetrahedral coordination of the cobalt ions that is responsible for the blue color.  For more information, see the paper, "Investigation of the discoloration of smalt pigment in historic paintings by Co K-edge micro X-ray absorption spectroscopy", L. Robinet et al., Anal. Chem., Article ASAP (DOI: 10.1021/ac200184f  Publication Date (Web) May 9, 2011).

In the presence of German President Christian Wulff and Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, the three directors of DESY, the European XFEL, and LNLS have signed a cooperation agreement in Brasilia.  For further information, visit the Web page, http://www.xfel.eu/news/2011/brasilian_german_agreement/

Optical tweezers are widely used because they are capable of trapping small materials by highly-focused laser beams.  They are highly useful for manipulating single fragile objects.  Recently compact optical tweezers have been designed and developed specifically for synchrotron X-ray diffraction experiments.  Samples of a few micrometers up to a few tens of micrometers size can be trapped easily.  The selection and positioning of single objects out of a batch of many can be performed semi-automatically by software routines.  For more information, see the paper, "Optical Tweezers for Synchrotron Radiation Probing of Trapped Biological and Soft Matter Objects in Aqueous Environments", S. C. Santucci et al., Anal. Chem., Article ASAP (DOI: 10.1021/ac200515x  Publication Date (Web) May 4, 2011).

The International Union of Crystallography (IUCr) has announced that Professor E. Dodson (Department of Chemistry, University of York, UK), Professor C. Giacovazzo (Institute of Crystallography-CNR, Bari, Italy) and Professor G.M. Sheldrick (Lehrstuhl fur Strukturchemie, Gottingen, Germany) have been awarded the ninth Ewald Prize for the enormous impact they have made on structural crystallography by designing new methods and providing these in algorithms and constantly maintained, renewed and extended user software. Their invaluable contributions to the computational side of the field have led to leadership with the program suites CCP4, SIR and SHELX, respectively.  The presentation of the prize will be made during the Madrid Congress Opening Ceremony in August 2011.  The Ewald Prize consists of a medal, a certificate and an award of USD 30,000.  Former recipients are D. Sayre (USA, 2008), P. Coppens (USA, 2005), M. M. Woolfson (UK, 2002), G. N. Ramachandran (India, 1999), M. G. Rossmann (USA, 1996), N. Kato (Japan, 1993), B. K. Vainshtein (Russia, 1990), J. M. Cowley (USA) and A. F. Moodie (Australia) in 1987.

In most cases, rocks and geomaterials are chemically and structurally inhomogeneous.  The use of X-ray absorption spectro-microscopy is one promising solution, but the very long measuring time for scanning large samples with a tiny beam poses a limit for detailed analysis.  At the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) in Grenoble, France, scientists recently performed much more efficient and feasible experiments by coupling near-edge X-ray absorption spectroscopy and full-field transmission radiography with a large X-ray beam.  The method basically consists of the repeated acquisition of X-ray images as a function of X-ray energy near the absorption edge (in the present case, iron K edge).  The research group also combines this with polarization contrast imaging.  By looking at the Fe³⁺/Fe(total) image, some redox variations were found in the single mineralogical phase of complex metamorphic rocks.  The research group also analyzed bentonite analogue by separating the spectra into those of 5 simple minerals.  The material is a candidate for the storage of nuclear waste and CO₂, and the information is helpful in designing such applications.  For more information, see the paper, "Submicrometer Hyperspectral X-ray Imaging of Heterogeneous Rocks and Geomaterials: Applications at the Fe K-Edge", V. De Andrade et al., Anal. Chem., Article ASAP (DOI: 10.1021/ac200559r  Publication Date (Web) April 18, 2011).

A group led by Professor C. Chang (University of Pennsylvania, USA) has recently reported a quantitative X-ray phase imaging method that can be readily implemented on existing facilities. This technique utilizes Fresnel zone plates both as imaging optical elements for magnification and as second-order grating structures for phase-shifting interferometry.  For more information, see the paper, "Quantitative x-ray differential-interference-contrast microscopy with independently adjustable bias and shear", T. Nakamura et al., Phys. Rev. A83, 043808 (2011).

A German group led by Professor U. Panne (Humboldt University, Berlin) has recently reported the successful application of the micro X-ray diffraction technique to the evaluation of the durability of cements against reaction with sodium sulfate.  The experiments were done with a Debye-Scherrer camera equipped with a large-size CCD camera (3072×3072) and monochromatic micro beam (11.6 keV, 10 μm).  By moving the sample along the X-ray path, it is possible to obtain information at different depths, and the team could therefore eventually reconstruct the profile of each crystalline phase along the depth from the surface.  It was found that phase transformations proceeded during damage caused by penetration of sulfates.  For more information, see the paper, "Deciphering the Sulfate Attack of Cementitious Materials by High-Resolution Micro-X-ray Diffraction", M. C. Schlegel et al., Anal. Chem., 83, 3744 (2011).

Recently, a research group led by Professor N. Kallithrakas-Kontos (Technical University of Crete, Greece) reported successful total-reflection X-ray fluorescence (TXRF) analysis of perchlorate.  In the present research, perchlorate anions were concentrated on anion-selective membranes prepared on a mirror-polished quartz substrate.  Then the quartz reflectors were taken out of the solution and analyzed by measuring Cl Kα intensity under the total-reflection condition, using a copper X-ray tube and helium atmosphere.  The effects of many experimental parameters were discussed in detail, and even the possible capability of discrimination between chloride and perchlorate anions was suggested.  The minimum detection limit was lower than 1 ng/mL.  For more information, see the paper, "Determination of Trace Perchlorate Concentrations by Anion-Selective Membranes and Total Reflection X-ray Fluorescence Analysis", V. S. Hatzistavros et al., Anal. Chem., Article ASAP (DOI: 10.1021/ac103295a  Publication Date (Web): April 4, 2011).

RIKEN and the Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute (JASRI) have announced the start-up of the X-ray Free Electron Laser (XFEL) facility in Harima, named "SACLA" (SPring-8 Angstrom Compact Free Electron Laser).  For further information, visit the Web page, http://xfel.riken.jp/eng/index.html

A Japanese group led by Professor K. Tsuji (Osaka City University, Japan) recently reported an interesting application of 3D micro X-ray fluorescence (XRF) imaging.  One should note that their research employed low-power laboratory X-ray sources (30-50W, Mo tube) instead of synchrotron X-rays.  They also used two polycapillary lenses for both incoming and outgoing directions to limit the viewing volume in 3D.  The research group measured some forensic samples such as multilayered automotive paint fragments, leather samples etc., which have different color coatings.  They analyzed 3D profiles of many elements (Si, S, Cl, K, Ca, Ti, Mn, Fe, Zn, and Ba) and discussed the relationship with the coating.  For more information, see the paper, "Depth Elemental Imaging of Forensic Samples by Confocal micro-XRF Method", K. Nakano et al., Anal. Chem., Article ASAP (DOI: 10.1021/ac1033177  Publication Date (Web): March 25, 2011).

In 2009, the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory started construction of the National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II), which is a new advanced synchrotron X-ray source with a 3 GeV storage ring and around 30 beamlines.  Construction has now passed the halfway stage, and magnet installation has just started.  The completion of the facility is expected in 2015.  For further information, visit the web page, http://www.bnl.gov/nsls2/

It is extremely important to develop new X-ray sources for future X-ray spectrometry.  One promising direction is a table-top synchrotron X-ray source, which consists of a high-power pulse laser and an undulator.  The method uses acceleration of electrons by pulse laser photons.  The idea becomes realistic once the energy reaches GeV and other properties such as stability, emittance etc are improved sufficiently.  For such development, it is indispensable to establish the method for quantitatively investigating the structure of the electron beam in time and space.  Recently, a German group succeeded in taking snapshots of the magnetic field generated by an accelerated electron bunch and simultaneously of a plasma wave by a combination of two techniques: time-resolved polarimetry and plasma shadowgraphy.  For more information, see the paper, "Real-time observation of laser-driven electron acceleration", A. Buck et al., Nature Physics (Published online, March 13, 2011  DOI:10.1038/nphys1942).

As a result of the Tohoku Region Pacific Coast Earthquake in Japan, which took place on March 11, 2011, nearly 30,000 people were killed or are still missing.  As can be clearly seen from the map of the magnitude of shaking intensity (see, for example, http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=fast-facts-japan), several research facilities were affected by this disaster.  Very strong quakes took place in Tsukuba, Ibaraki prefecture, where the Photon Factory, a synchrotron source, is located.  However, first of all, the map does not correspond very well to the loss of lives and damage to buildings, roads, railways and other infrastructure.  While the coastal areas of Miyagi, Iwate and Fukushima prefectures were destroyed by the tsunami, many cities and towns in the inland area were quite safe.  In spite of the largest earthquake since scientific surveys started, damage was minimal.  No lives were lost, and no buildings were completely destroyed in the campus of the Photon Factory.  The detailed status of the facility is available in the following Web page, http://pfwww.kek.jp/whats_new/earthquakeinfo/announce_e.html.

All beamtime allocated in the term from May to September has been cancelled.  On the other hand, another Japanese synchrotron radiation facility, SPring-8 had no damage, because the location is far from the source of the earthquake.  The SPring-8 plans to accept some users of the Photon Factory for experiments.  For further information, visit the Web page, http://www.spring8.or.jp/en/urgentnews/110401

A research team led by Professor J. Larsson (Lund University, Sweden) has recently performed time-resolved X-ray reflectivity measurements with 100 picosecond resolution at ID09B, at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF).  The experiment is a so-called pump-probe measurement, i.e., the repetition of the measurement with systematic change of the delay time of the pump (laser light) and probe (X-ray) pulses.  In their research, amorphous carbon films with a thickness of 46 nm were excited with laser pulses (100 fs duration, 800 nm wavelength, and 70 mJ/cm² fluence).  Here, the laser-induced stress caused a rapid expansion of the thin film followed by a relaxation of the film thickness as heat diffused into the silicon substrate.  The researchers succeeded in measuring changes in film thickness by X-ray reflectivity with a short X-ray pulse (100 ps duration).  It was observed that thermal stress generated by laser excitation causes the film to rapidly expand and increases the surface roughness substantially.  The subsequent relaxation of film thickness is governed by heat diffusion into the substrate.  For more information, see the paper, "Picosecond time-resolved x-ray reflectivity of a laser-heated amorphous carbon film", R. Nuske et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 98, 101909 (2011).

A Japanese research group led by Professors J. Kawai (Kyoto University) and T. Yamamoto (Tokushima University) has recently published a series of high-resolution X-ray fluorescence spectra for supported vanadium oxide catalysts.  The measurement was done with a double crystal spectrometer (Si 220 reflections with (+, +) arrangement), and the typical energy resolution was around 2.5 eV.  The authors were successful in discussing quantitatively the difference in chemical states among the catalysts supported on the different oxides, amorphous SiO₂, γ-Al₂O₃, and TiO₂ (anatase/rutile = 7/3).  For more information, see the paper, "Quantitative Chemical State Analysis of Supported Vanadium Oxide Catalysts by High Resolution Vanadium Kα Spectroscopy", T. Yamamoto et al., Anal. Chem., Article ASAP (DOI: 10.1021/ac102681z  Publication Date (Web): February 8, 2011).

Dr. J. M. Fernandez-Varea (Universitat de Barcelona, Spain) and his colleagues have recently studied the emission of Lα, Lβ, and Lγ characteristic X-rays by the impact of electrons on Hf, Ta, W, Re, Os, Au, Pb, and Bi atoms.  They calculated the ionization cross sections of the LI, LII, and LIII subshells of these atoms within the distorted-wave Born approximation, and compared them with the published experimental data.  For more information, see the paper, "Lα, Lβ, and Lγ x-ray production cross sections of Hf, Ta, W, Re, Os, Au, Pb, and Bi by electron impact: Comparison of distorted-wave calculations with experiment", J. M. Fernandez-Varea et al., Phys. Rev. A83, 022702 (2011).

Two very exiting experimental reports have been published on the application of an X-ray free electron laser (XFEL) at Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS, Stanford, USA).  An international research team led by Dr. H. Chapman (DESY, Hamburg, Germany) and Professor J. Hajdu (Uppsala University, Sweden) has demonstrated a new advanced stage of protein crystallography, which uses only tiny proteins instead of preparing large-size crystals.  This could open up new possibilities for the analysis of proteins that have been difficult or even impossible to prepare so far.  The technique has been basically known as coherent X-ray diffraction imaging.  The present research is the first experimental application of extremely brilliant femtosecond XFEL pulses.  In addition to the demonstration of snapshots of nano-crystalline proteins, they have reported the first single-shot images of intact viruses.  For more information, see the papers, "Femtosecond X-ray protein nanocrystallography", H. N. Chapman et al., Nature, 470, 73 (2011) and "Single mimivirus particles intercepted and imaged with an X-ray laser", M. M. Seibert et al., Nature, 470, 78 (2011).

Scientists in Japan have been using two synchrotrons, the SPring-8 and the Photon Factory, to analyze the dust particles collected by the HAYABUSA Asteroid probe, which returned from Asteroid Itokawa on June 13, 2010. HAYABUSA, which means "Falcon" in Japanese, was launched from the Uchinoura Space Center in Japan on May 9, 2003, and arrived at Itokawa in September 2005.  The HAYABUSA particles were initially analyzed using electron microscopes, and then forwarded to the above synchrotron facilities in January 2011.  Many interesting 3D images were collected at BL20XU, SPring-8, and the structure and chemical compositions were also analyzed at BL-3A, Photon Factory, KEK.  For more information on the HAYABUSA project, visit the web page of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA),  http://www.isas.jaxa.jp/e/enterp/missions/hayabusa/index.shtml

The Science and Technology Foundation of Japan has announced that Japanese and US scientists have been named as laureates of the 2011 (27th) Japan Prize.  Dr. Dennis M. Ritchie, 69, Distinguished Member of Technical Staff Emeritus, Bell Labs, and Dr. Ken Thompson, 67, Distinguished Engineer, Google Inc., have received the prize in this year's category of "Information and Communications" for developing the operating system (OS), UNIX, in 1969.  Dr. Tadamitsu Kishimoto, 71, Professor Emeritus, Osaka University and Dr. Toshio Hirano, 63, Dean of the Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka University, were selected in the other prize category of "Bioscience and medical science" for their discovery of interleukin 6 (IL-6), a cell-signaling molecule in the immune system and its application in treating diseases.  They will each receive a certificate of recognition and a commemorative gold medal at an award ceremony during Japan Prize Week in Tokyo on April 20, 2011.  A cash award of 50 million Japanese yen (approximately US$600,000) will also be given to each field - this year the two laureates in each field will split the prize equally.  The prize categories for the 2012 (28th) Japan Prize will be "Environment, Energy, Infrastructure" and "Healthcare, Medical Technology".  For further information, visit the web page, http://www.japanprize.jp/en/index.html

Many readers of this news column are familiar with total-reflection X-ray fluorescence (TXRF).  They also know that experiments can be done with a wavelength-dispersive mode, besides ordinary measurement with a silicon drift detector or a Si(Li) detector.  If the spectrometer is optimized to see inelastic X-ray scattering spectra, what happens?  Very recently, a research team led by Dr. P. H. Fuoss (Argonne National Laboratory, USA) published a very interesting report. The experiment used soft X-rays to observe the electronic structure of a 10-nm-thick La_0.6Sr_0.4CoO₃ epitaxial layer grown on a SrTiO₃ substrate.  By comparing data acquired under total X-ray reflection and penetrating conditions, it was found that the O K-edge spectra from a 10 nm thin film and that from the underlying substrate can be separated successfully.  For more information, see the papers, "Total-Reflection Inelastic X-Ray Scattering from a 10-nm Thick La0.6Sr0.4CoO3 Thin Film", T. T. Fister et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 037401 (2011).

Dr. S. Arzhantsev (Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, US Food and Drug Administration, St. Louis) and his colleagues have published some very interesting research.  The research group is engaged in the determination of toxic metals in pharmaceutical materials using hand-held XRF spectrometers.  It is extremely important with respect to toxic metal contamination to establish a reliable technique for classifying a large number of samples.  As the procedure is basically a kind of pattern recognition, the problem that needs to be overcome is finding a suitable filter for signals and noises in XRF spectra.  The research group chose a continuous Wavelet transform, which is an extension of short-time Fourier transform (STFT) and is capable of constructing a time-frequency representation of a signal that offers very good time and frequency localization.  In the paper, they discussed the comparison of the signal-to-noise ratios at the energies of the elements of interest obtained by wavelet filtering and those obtained by the conventional empirical method.  The results were evaluated in a collaborative study that involved 5 different hand-held XRF spectrometers used by multiple analysts in 6 separate laboratories across the United States, leading to more than 1200 measurements.  The detection limits estimated for arsenic, lead, mercury, and chromium were 8, 14, 20, and 150 μg/g, respectively.  For more information, see the paper, "Rapid Limit Tests for Metal Impurities in Pharmaceutical Materials by X-ray Fluorescence Spectroscopy Using Wavelet Transform Filtering", S. Arzhantsev et al., Anal. Chem., 83, 1061 (2011).

In Issue 47, vol. 22 (2010) of Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, a special section features a compilation of articles on exploring surfaces and buried interfaces of functional materials by advanced X-ray and neutron techniques.  Many of the authors are members of a group established in the Japan Applied Physics Society, and this is their 9^th collection of articles since 2001.  Unlike many other surface-sensitive methods, these techniques do not require ultra high vacuum, and therefore, a variety of real and complicated surfaces fall within the scope of analysis.  It must be particularly emphasized that the techniques are capable of seeing even buried function interfaces as well as the surface.  Furthermore, the information, which ranges from the atomic to mesoscopic scale, is highly quantitative and reproducible.  Such features are fairly attractive when exploring multilayered materials with nanostructures (dots, tubes, wires, etc), which are finding applications in electronic, magnetic, optical and other devices.  Visit the Web page to download the papers in this collection, http://iopscience.iop.org/0953-8984/22/47

W. Rontgen took the world's first X-ray photo on November 8, 1895, thereby creating the very famous X-ray image of his wife's fingers.  Ker Than has written a short article in National Geographic News on this X-ray photo.  For more information, see the article, " 115-Year-Old X-Ray", http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/11/photogalleries/101108-x-rays-google-doodle-115th-anniversary-years-science-pictures/?now=2010-11-08-00:01

A U-shaped design for rotating anode X-ray sources is one method for enabling high brilliance, and was first proposed by Professor N. Sakabe (KEK, Tsukuba, Japan) in 1995.  Unlike ordinary rotating anode X-ray sources, the electron beam goes beyond the outside surface of the rotating anode and then reverses its direction so that it can hit the inside surface.  In this case, because of the centrifugal force of the rotating anode, the surface can be much smoother than usual even near the melting point, enabling the production of more X-ray photons.  A KEK research group has published a report on recent progress with this type of X-ray source.  According to their simulation, by optimizing both the bending and the steering magnets, the beam size can be 0.45 mm (horizontal) × 0.05 mm (vertical) for a 120 keV/75 mA beam.  The effective brilliance is about 500 kW/mm².  For more information, see the paper, "Research and development of an electron beam focusing system for a high-brightness X-ray generator", T. Sakai et al., J. Synchrotron Rad. 18, (2011) (Published online, DOI:10.1107/S0909049510029948).

Professor P. Blaha (Technische Universität Wien, Austria) and his colleagues have recently calculated the X-ray absorption spectra at the L_{II, III} edges of the early 3d elements by solving the Bethe-Salpeter equation (BSE).  Under the independent particle approximation (IPA), X-ray absorption spectra are usually considered as proportional to the unoccupied part of the projected density of states weighted by the momentum matrix elements between the core and the conduction states.  However, due to the localization of the core wave function, the interaction of the exited electron with its hole is not negligible.  In particular, the branching ratio between the L_II and L_III edges cannot be explained.  Though the IPA gives 1:2, the observed ratios are much closer to 1:1 or even higher for K, Ca, Sc, Ti, and V.  They detailed this problem based on their BSE calculation.  For more information, see the paper, "Understanding the L2,3 x-ray absorption spectra of early 3d transition elements", R. Laskowski et al., Phys. Rev. B 82, 205104 (2010).

Dr. I. Han (Ağrι İbrahim Çeçen University, Turkey) and his colleagues have published a paper on the relationship between the Kβ/Kα X-ray fluorescence intensity ratio and valence-electron configurations in Ti_xCo_1-x (x = 0.7, 0.6, 0.5, 0.4, and 0.3).  For more information, see the paper, "Relative K x-ray intensity studies on valence-electron structure of Ti and Co in Ti_xCo_1-x alloys", I. Han et al., Phys. Rev. A82, 042514 (2010).

The Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source (CHESS), at Cornell University (USA) has been granted a total of $109 million.  The National Science Foundation (NSF) has received $77 million to continue its existing operation of the facility through 2014 and $32 million for research and development of prototypes for the Energy Recovery Linac (ERL).  For further information, visit the web page, http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Sept10/ERLCHESS.html

A research group at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, USA, has recently published an interesting report on an automated data analysis method for submicrometer atmospheric particles containing organic and inorganic material.  The main idea is the use of X-ray spectral features in the energy range from 278 to 320 eV, which is near the carbon K-edge and potassium LII and LIII edges.  The method provides quantitative mapping of the spatial distribution of elemental carbon, organic carbon, potassium, and noncarbonaceous elements in particles of mixed composition.  It was recently applied to analyze differences in over 1000 particles collected at various times and locations in Mexico City to examine the effects of atmospheric aging on internally mixed atmospheric aerosol particles.  For more information, see the paper, "Automated Chemical Analysis of Internally Mixed Aerosol Particles Using X-ray Spectromicroscopy at the Carbon K-Edge", R. C. Moffet et al., Anal. Chem. 82, 7906 (2010).

A research group led by Professor F. Pfeiffer (Technische Universitat Munchen, Germany) has recently reported an extremely powerful combination of X-ray tomography and ptychographic coherent imaging, which enables quantitative phase-contrast X-ray microscopy without any lenses.  A refractive index in the X-ray region is usually expressed as n = 1 - d - iβ, where d and β are real and imaginary parts, and relate to the phase shift and the attenuation, respectively.  The researchers developed a new method to give a 3D image of d rather than β, because d can give much higher visibility in samples based on low-Z elements, which are most likely in bio-medical applications. So far, phase-contrast X-ray imaging has had limitations in giving such quantitative information.  The use of coherent X-ray diffraction is one of the most promising solutions, and ptychography is a further extension that enhances precision in recovering the phase by introducing scanning of the sample.  As the spatial resolution of the computed images is no longer limited by the quality or resolving power of a lens, just a pinhole was used in the present research.  By combining such image reconstruction to obtain nano-scale 2D images with other image processing based on a back-filtered projection algorithm, they have succeeded in obtaining 3D images on the 100 nm scale of bone structures such as the osteocyte lacunae and the interconnective canalicular network.  The experiments were done at X12SA beamline, Swiss Light Source.  For more information, see the paper, "Ptychographic X-ray computed tomography at the nanoscale", M. Dierolf et al., Nature, 467, 436 (2010).  In the same issue, there is an instructive account, "A new phase for X-ray imaging", H. N. Chapman, Nature, 467, 409 (2010).  For the details of ptychography, see the paper, "The Theory of Super-Resolution Electron Microscopy Via Wigner-Distribution Deconvolution", J. M. Rodenburg and R. H. T. Bates, Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. (London) A339, 521 (1992).

Some readers might remember the news article, "A new technique with coherent X-rays to determine non-crystalline structures", in X-ray Spectrometry, Vol. 38, No.5 (2009).  The technique called X-ray cross correlation analysis (XCCA) is an extension of X-ray photon correlation spectroscopy, and is promising with respect to solving the atomic-scale structures of complicated disordered systems, which have for many years presented difficulties in terms of reaching a clear understanding of the structures.  Recently, Dr. M. Altarelli (European X-ray Free-Electron Laser Facility, Hamburg, Germany) and his colleagues published a paper on the theoretical treatment of XCCA.  They gave a general theory for the cross correlation function, and tried to interpret the experimental XCCA results for colloidal glass.  The authors plan further publications to present the results of various simulations as well.  For more information, see the paper, "X-ray cross-correlation analysis and local symmetries of disordered systems: General theory", M. Altarelli et al., Phys. Rev. B82, 104207 (2010).

A geoscientists group at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF, Grenoble, France), has recently found that a natural fertile peridotite, which is a characteristic material of the Earth's mantle, can be partially molten at a pressure of 140 GPa, when the temperature reaches 4,200 K.  This could reinforce the hypothesis of the presence of a deep magma ocean.  The experiments showed that the liquid produced during this partial fusion is dense and that it can hold multiple chemical elements, among which are important markers of the dynamics of the mantle.  For more information, see the paper, "Melting of Peridotite to 140 Gigapascals", G. Fiquet et al., Science, 329, 1516 (2010).

Argentinian scientists have recently published a paper on the emission of X-ray satellite lines in the Kα region of Mg, Si, Sc, Ti, Cr, Fe, Ni, and Zn induced by an electron beam.  They studied Kα', Kα₃, Kα₄, Kα₅, Kα₆, and two transitions denoted here as Kα₂₂ and Kα₁₂.  The work is a continuation of their previous work (see, the previous article, "Kβ satellites in EPMA", in X-ray Spectrometry, Vol. 39, No.2 (2010).)  For more information, see the paper, "Kα satellite transitions in elements with 12 ≤Z≤30 produced by electron incidence", S. P. Limandri et al., Phys. Rev., A82, 032505 (2010).

Dr. B. M. Patterson (Los Alamos National Laboratory, USA) and his colleagues have recently published an interesting paper on analytical problems arising from micro X-ray computer tomography.  They discussed the use of a dimensional standard based upon NIST certified glass microspheres dispersed in a low density poly(styrene) matrix.  For more information, see the paper, "Dimensional Standard for Micro X-ray Computed Tomography", B. M. Patterson et al., Anal. Chem., Article ASAP (DOI: 10.1021/ac101522q  Publication Date (Web): September 16, 2010).

Determination of the selenium content of soils is an important issue from the viewpoint of environmental and earth sciences. The work presents a lot of technical difficulties due to low concentrations within complex matrices.  Dr. E. Margui (Institute of Earth Sciences "Jaume Almera", CSIC, Spain) and her colleagues have recently explored the possibilities of several analytical approaches combined with total reflection X-ray (TXRF) spectrometry.  While direct analysis of a solid suspension has a relatively poor detection limit of around 1 mg/kg, a dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction procedure (DLLME) before the TXRF analysis of the soil digest provides much greater detection power.  The detection limit is 0.05 mg/kg, which is comparable to or lower than previously published results.  For more information, see the paper, "Analytical Possibilities of Total Reflection X-ray Spectrometry (TXRF) for Trace Selenium Determination in Soils", E. Margui et al., Anal. Chem., 82, 7744 (2010).

Electrons accelerated by the interaction between an ultrashort laser pulse and a plasma and then injected into a cold target can create X-ray photons via bremsstrahlung as well as inner shell ionization.  The burst of K X-ray fluorescence from a metallic target is typically up to 10¹² photons/pulse with a duration of 100∼600 fs.  Dr. F. Zamponi (Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Germany) and his colleagues have recently published an interesting report.  Thin titanium foils were irradiated by ultraintense laser pulses at intensities up to ≈5×10¹⁹ W/cm², and X-rays emitted from the front and rear sides were measured using a high-resolution imaging system, which allows spectral analysis.  During the experiments, they found significant differences in intensity, dimension, and spectrum between front and rear side X-ray emission in the 3~12 keV range.  They explained such differences in terms of directional bremsstrahlung emission from fast electrons generated during the interaction process.  For more information, see the paper, "Directional Bremsstrahlung from a Ti Laser-Produced X-Ray Source at Relativistic Intensities in the 3-12 keV Range", F. Zampon et al., Phys. Rev. Lett., 105, 085001 (2010).

X-ray fluorescence spectra can give information on various chemical states, including spin states such as high-spin and low-spin.  Recently, Dr. G. Venko (KFKI Research Institute for Particle and Nuclear Physics, Hungary) and his colleagues published their research on light-induced spin crossover transition.  They studied the spin state of aqueous [Fe(bpy)3]²⁺ (bpy=2,2'-bipyridine) molecules, 60 ps after an ultrashort laser pulse excitation by time-resolved X-ray fluorescence.  The laser induces a low-spin to high-spin conversion, and then the system goes back to the low-spin state on a 0.1 ns timescale.  For more information, see the paper, "Picosecond Time-Resolved X-Ray Emission Spectroscopy: Ultrafast Spin-State Determination in an Iron Complex", G. Vanko et al., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 49, 5910 (2010).

The following awards were presented during the plenary session of the 59th Annual Denver X-Ray Conference: The 2010 Birks Award was presented to Victor Buhrke, Consultant, Portola Valley, CA to honor his significant contributions to the field of X-ray spectrometry.  The 2010 Hanawalt Award was given to Takeshi Egami, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN and Simon Billinge, Columbia University, New York, NY.  This award is presented every three years for an important, recent contribution to the field of powder diffraction.

The 2010 workshop on buried interface science with X-rays and neutrons was held at Nagoya University, Japan, on July 25-27, 2010.  This was the latest in a series of 15 workshops held since 2001; Tsukuba (December 2001), Niigata (September 2002), Nagoya (July 2003), Tsukuba (July 2004), Saitama (March 2005), Yokohama (July 2006), Kusatsu (August 2006), Kanda-Tokyo (December 2006), Sendai (July 2007), Sapporo (September 2007), Kanda-Tokyo (December 2007), Tsukuba (March 2009), Akihabara-Tokyo (July 2009) and Hiratsuka (March 2010).  There are increasing demands for sophisticated metrology in order to observe multilayered materials with nano-structures (dots, wires, etc), which are finding applications in electronic, magnetic, optical and other devices.  Solid-liquid interfaces are another very important research subject.  X-ray and neutron analysis is known for its ability to observe in a non-destructive manner even buried function interfaces as well as the surface.  In addition to such inherent advantages, recent remarkable advances in micro analysis and quick time-resolved analysis in X-ray reflectometry are extremely important.  The present workshop gathered together those with different research backgrounds, i.e., from semiconductor electronics to chemical bio materials, and even theoretical groups were invited to give insights into unsolved problems on buried interfaces.  The workshop proceedings will be published in IOP conference series: Materials Science and Engineering, no later than the end of 2010.

Dr. W. Yashiro (University of Tokyo, Japan) and his colleagues recently reported an interesting application of X-ray Talbot interferometry, which usually gives absorption and differential-phase images.  As micro-structures of the sample distort X-ray wave fronts, the research group quantitatively discusses how visibility reduction is caused and influenced.  They also experimentally demonstrate that this new type of experimental method using visibility contrast is feasible for imaging micro-structures, which have been studied by ultra small angle X-ray scattering so far.  For more information, see the paper, "On the origin of visibility contrast in x-ray Talbot interferometry", W. Yashiro et al., Optics Express, 18, 16890 (2010).  For more information on visibility contrast, see the paper, "Hard x-ray dark-field imaging using a grating interferometer", F. Pfeiffer et al., Nature Materials, 7, 134 (2008).

NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit has obtained some significant data on the detailed chemical composition of the rock exposed on the ground surface of the Columbia Hills of the Gusev crater.  It was found that the rock is a Mg-Fe carbonate (Mc_0.62Sd_0.25Cc_0.11Rh_0.02, where Mc = magnesite, Sd = siderite, Cc = calcite, and Rh = rhodochrosite) and a forsteritic olivine (Fo_0.72Fa_0.28, where Fo = forsterite and Fa = fayalite).  This could suggest extensive aqueous activity under near-neutral pH conditions that would be conducive to habitable environments on early Mars.  On this occasion, in addition to a X-ray spectrometer, a Mossbauer (MB) spectrometer and Miniature Thermal Emission Spectrometer (Mini-TES) greatly contributed to the findings.  For more information, see the paper, "Identification of Carbonate-Rich Outcrops on Mars by the Spirit Rover", R. V. Morris et al., Science 329, 421 (2010).

Scientists led by Dr. N. Awaji (Fujitsu Laboratories, Japan) have recently reported successful large area imaging by Fourier transform holography in both soft and hard X-ray regions.  The key was the separation of a holographic mask from the sample, enabling the sample to then be scanned to increase the observation area (~10μm or even more), though the beam size was fairly limited (~1μm) to maintain good coherence.  They demonstrated some magnetic domain images of perpendicular magnetized film with soft X-rays (778 eV), and also some patterned samples and the cross-section of the Cu-interconnect-line with hard X-rays (5,500 eV).  The spatial resolution for the above energies was 42 and 75 nm, respectively.  The experiments were performed at SPring-8 (Harima, Japan).  For more information, see the paper, "Large Area Imaging by Fourier Transform Holography Using Soft and Hard X-rays", N. Awaji et al., Appl. Phys. Express 3, 085201 (2010).

Short period, high field undulators can enable short wavelength free electron lasers (FELs) at low beam energy.  A research group led by Professor J. Rosenzweig (University of California, Los Angeles, USA) has recently unveiled a new design based on an approach that utilizes cryogenic materials.  For more information, see the paper, "Short period, high field cryogenic undulator for extreme performance x-ray free electron lasers", F. H. O'Shea et al., Phys. Rev. ST Accel. Beams 13, 070702 (2010).

A Brazilian research group recently discussed the thermal influence of soft X-ray free-electron-laser (FEL) pulses on silicon substrate.  Such analysis is important, because the peak power of a single FEL pulse is roughly four orders of magnitude higher than that in conventional synchrotron light facilities.  Their detailed time-evolution analysis indicates that in a worst case scenario, the second pulse could be adversely affected by dynamic thermal distortion induced by the preceding pulse. For more information, see the paper, "Thermoelastic analysis of a silicon surface under x-ray free-electron-laser irradiation", A. R. B. de Castro et al., Rev. Sci. Instrum. 81, 073102 (2010).

What happens when an atom is excited by extremely strong X-ray photons such as an X-ray laser?  A Stanford research group recently published a very exciting report on the ionization of neon  (Z=10) by X-ray laser at the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) housed at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in California, USA.  The laser used in this experiment is extremely powerful (10¹⁸ W/cm², 10⁵ X-ray photons/Ų), and the research group scanned the X-ray photon energy from 800 eV to 2,000 eV, as well as the pulse width from 80 fs to 230 fs.  As the K absorption edge of neon is around 867 eV, below this energy, X-rays can strip some of the eight weakly bound electrons from the outer L shell of the neon atom.  Such a process of peeling electrons from atoms would come as no surprise for readers of X-ray spectrometry.  Above the absorption edge, K shell electrons are preferentially ejected, creating 1s vacancies that are refilled by electrons from the L shell.  Before the relaxation occurs, the remaining K shell electron is even more tightly bound to the neon nucleus than in the ground state.  Therefore, the K absorption edge for the system with a 1s vacancy is higher than usual.  When the research team raised the X-ray photon energy to 993 eV, both electrons from the inner K shell were knocked out, ionizing the atom from the inside out - in other words, coring the atom.  With this "hollow" neon then, a completely empty K shell has been created for the first time by X-ray photons, though similar phenomena may be possible by means of ultra-high temperature plasma, extremely high-energy collision processes etc.  For more information, see the paper, "Femtosecond electronic response of atoms to ultra-intense X-rays", L. Young et al., Nature 466, 56 (2010).  In the same issue, there is an interesting account by Justin Wark, "X-ray laser peels and cores atoms", Nature 466, 35 (2010).

Professor Rene Van Grieken (University of Antwerp, the chief editor of X-Ray Spectrometry journal) received the European X-ray Spectrometry Association's "Outstanding Career in X-Ray Spectrometry" award during the European X-Ray Spectrometry Conference in Figueira da Foz, Portugal, on June 24, 2010.

A research group led by Professor C-U. Ro (Inha University, Korea) has recently reported the combined use of two techniques, attenuated total reflectance FT-IR (ATR-FT-IR) imaging and a quantitative energy-dispersive electron probe X-ray microanalysis, low-Z particle EPMA, for the speciation of mineral particles.  For more information, see the paper, "Speciation of Individual Mineral Particles of Micrometer Size by the Combined Use of Attenuated Total Reflectance-Fourier Transform-Infrared Imaging and Quantitative Energy-Dispersive Electron Probe X-ray Microanalysis Techniques", H-J. Jung et al., Anal. Chem. 82, 6193 (2010).

A Chinese group led by Professor J. Zhang (President of Shanghai Jiao Tong University) recently published a report on the generation of X-ray pulses of around 3 keV by using an Ar clustering gas jet target (~3mm dia.) and a Ti:sapphire laser (power 800 mJ, pulse width 28 fs, wavelength 800 nm, frequency 10 Hz).  The intensity of the Ar K-shell emissions in the forward direction was found to be around 10⁴ photons/mrad²/pulse.  The group emphasized the significance of laser contrast, which is a ratio of the main pulse and pre-pulse, and found that X-ray flux is reduced by 2 orders of magnitude if the laser pulse contrast decreases from 10⁹ to 10⁷ with constant laser pulse energy. For more information, see the paper, "Intense High-Contrast Femtosecond K-Shell X-Ray Source from Laser-Driven Ar Clusters", L. M. Chen et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 215004 (2010).

An international team of paleontologists, geochemists and physicists led by Dr. R. A. Wogelius (University of Manchester, UK) recently employed X-ray fluorescence imaging to analyze a 150 million year old fossil of Archaeopteryx, which had dinosaur-like teeth and bird-like feathers.  For many years, it was believed that the fossil contained nothing but bone and rock.  However, the use of a brilliant synchrotron X-ray beam enabled the detection of chemical elements hidden within.  It was found that the fossil still had elemental compositions that were completely different from the embedding geological matrix.  The researchers completed the chemical map of the dinobird for 12 elements for the first time.  Some phosphor and sulfur were found in soft tissue, as well as trace zinc and copper in bone.  The experiment was done at wiggler beam line 6-2 at Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL, California, USA).  For more information, see the paper, "Archaeopteryx feathers and bone chemistry fully revealed via synchrotron imaging", U. Bergmann et al., Proc. Nat. Aca. Sci., 107, 9060 (2010).

Professor P. Dutta (University of Chicago) and his colleagues recently clarified that the surface density profile acquires layered structures at 0.2 T_c; T_c is the liquid-gas critical temperature.  The present research was for dielectric liquids, pentaphenyl trimethyl trisiloxane, and pentavinyl pentamethyl cyclopentasiloxane. The X-ray reflectivity technique was employed to determine the surface profile experimentally.  The research group had previously found similar phenomena for other liquid dielectric liquids as well as liquid metals.  The present studies could strengthen their series of work.  For more information, see the paper, "Surface order in cold liquids: X-ray reflectivity studies of dielectric liquids and comparison to liquid metals", S. Chattopadhyay et al., Phys. Rev, B81, 184206 (2010).

Combinatorial materials synthesis is a promising new way of developing and finding novel functional materials.  By the use of sophisticated thin film technology, it is possible to create compositionally graded samples on the same single substrate.  To analyze this combinatorial library, some novel technique is required.  A UK research group led by Professor K. D. Rogers (Cranfield University, UK) recently reported on high-throughput data collection and analysis using an X-ray diffraction (XRD) probe.  In the research, an extended X-ray beam was used to illuminate the libraries, and a large area detector was used to collect the data.  A new algorithm was employed to analyze the collected data and extract the crystallographic information.  For more information, see the paper, "High Throughput X-ray Diffraction Analysis of Combinatorial Polycrystalline Thin Film Libraries", S. Roncallo et al., Anal. Chem., 82, 4564 (2010).

The Advanced Photon Source has received approval from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for the first stage of an upgrade to the facility.  Details of the upgrade program can be found in a downloadable movie, http://www.aps.anl.gov/Upgrade/CDR

In the May 2010 issue of Nature Materials, Joerg Heber interviewed Professor G. Materlik, CEO of the Diamond Light Source, UK.  The article features his answers to 7 wide-ranging questions that would be of particular interest to readers, such as "What is the future of synchrotrons?", "How about free-electron lasers?" and "Are you worried about the general science budget in the UK and about Diamond's funding?"  For more information, see the article, "Coherence comes full circle", Nature Materials 9, 375 (2010).

Kyoto University Museum is staging a special exhibition called "What are X-rays?" from April 28 to August 29.  For more than 100 years, X-rays have contributed significantly to many sciences and technologies including medicine, astronomy, archaeology and even forensic science.  The exhibition presents a full history of X-rays and their wide variety of applications, as well the future outlook, in a comprehensive manner that is aimed at non-specialists.  Some interesting X-ray images are displayed, such as scans of a 400-year-old picture of so-called hidden Christians (who continued to practice Christianity in secret despite suppression by the government of Japan at that time) and the mummy of a bird (Crested Ibis) from ancient Egypt.  During this special event, 4 lectures will be given.  The museum's web page is http://www.museum.kyoto-u.ac.jp/index_e.htm

Coherent X-ray diffraction imaging is one of the hottest research topics in advanced X-ray physics.  The method reconstructs a real-space image from an oversampled diffraction signal by using computer algorithms instead of lenses.  So far, its application has been limited to fairly strong phase objects, mainly due to parasitic scattering from the optics used for limiting the beam.  Korean researchers recently published an interesting report on its application to a nonisolated weak phase object, a one-dimensional trench structure fabricated on a Si substrate.  In their discussion, the authors reported that such work was enabled by employing a special aperture with a very high aspect ratio of nearly 100 made of tantalum (1.7 μm × 2.2 μm aperture with a thickness of 130 μm).  For more information, see the paper, "Coherent hard x-ray diffractive imaging of nonisolated objects confined by an aperture", S. Kim et al., Phys. Rev. B81, 165437 (2010).

A group led by Professor Ch. David (Paul Scherrer Institute, Switzerland) recently developed a synchrotron-based full-field microscope, which can work with hard X-rays, typically 10 keV.  The instrument supports tomographic absorption and phase contrast imaging with a spatial resolution of 144 nm.  The researchers demonstrated phase-contrast 3D imaging of a melanocortin-3 preosteoblast cell.  For more information, see the paper, "Phase-contrast tomography at the nanoscale using hard x rays", M. Stampanoni et al., Phys. Rev. B 81, 140105(R) (2010).

Lens-less microscopy is now widely acknowledged to be an elegant solution to the so-called phase problem in X-ray crystallography.  The method is based on the digital retrieval of the phase from the object's coherently diffracted intensity patterns, with the inversion being achieved through the use of time-consuming iterative algorithms.  Fourier transform holography is a similar technique, but is essentially very quick and straightforward.  Dr. V. Chamard (IM2NP, CNRS, Aix-Marseille Universite, France) and her colleagues recently demonstrated 3D imaging of a SiGe nanocrystal with Fourier transform holography.  One unique point of the research is that they employed Bragg geometry, rather than forward scattering geometry, to obtain full 3D information.  The technique requires that a reference crystal is placed near the object crystal to be imaged, and that the two crystals need to have comparable lattice parameters.  They were successful in determining the electron density and the displacement field in 3D without suffering convergence problems, which are often the case with lens-less imaging iterative algorithms.  For more information, see the paper, "Three-Dimensional X-Ray Fourier Transform Holography: The Bragg Case", V. Chamard et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 165501 (2010).

Dr. M. Giorgetti (University of Bologna and Unita di Ricerca INSTM di Bologna) and his colleagues recently reported the successful application of the chemometric approach to a series of in-situ near edge X-ray absorption spectra of a Cu_0.1V₂O₅ xerogel/Li ion battery.  The research group discusses how the multivariate curve resolution (MCR) technique and also fixed size windows evolving factor analysis (FSWEFA) are useful in determining the number of species and the ratio.  It was found that three different species co-exist during battery charging. For more information, see the paper, "Multivariate Curve Resolution Analysis for Interpretation of Dynamic Cu K-Edge X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy Spectra for a Cu Doped V₂O₅ Lithium", P. Conti et al., Anal. Chem., Article ASAP (DOI: 10.1021/ac902865h)

A German group at BESSY II recently succeeded in studying the evolution of both the spin (S) and orbital angular (L) momentum of a thin Ni film during ultrafast demagnetization, by means of X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD).  It was found that both S and L components decrease by irradiating a femtosecond laser pulse, and the time constant is 130±40 fs.  For more information, see the paper, "Femtosecond x-ray absorption spectroscopy of spin and orbital angular momentum in photoexcited Ni films during ultrafast demagnetization", C. Stamm et al., Phys. Rev, B81, 104425 (2010).

A Dutch neutron research group at Delft University of Technology, Netherlands, recently published a paper describing the extension of their coherence theory on neutron scattering to X-ray reflectivity.  For more information, see the paper, "Coherence approach in neutron, x-ray, and neutron spin-echo reflectometry", V. O. de Haan et al., Phys. Rev. B81, 094112 (2010).

Demand for learning analytical techniques for surfaces and interfaces appears to be on the increase.  In Tokyo, Japan, the 4th tutorial course on the analysis of thin films and multilayers by X-ray reflectivity was held on March 16.  The first Japanese textbook that serves as an introduction to X-ray reflectivity was published in 2009 (also translated into Korean in 2010), and the 8 authors gave lectures as part of the course.  Further information is available at http://www.nims.go.jp/xray/ref/ (in Japanese only).

Professor L. J. Allen (University of Melbourne, Australia) and his colleagues have recently demonstrated atomic-resolution chemical mapping in a scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM).  They obtained Sr and Ti images for SrTiO₃.  Such images are directly interpretable mainly because the effective ionization interaction is localized.  For more information, see the paper, "Atomic-resolution chemical mapping using energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy", A. J. D'Alfonso et al., Phys. Rev. B81, 100101(R) (2010).

With linac-based light sources, the electron beam has a high peak current and small energy spread, and this can be used to drive a seeded single pass free electron laser.  On the other hand, the beams in a storage ring usually have a relatively low current and large energy spread.  To generate ultrashort coherent radiation, the coherent harmonic generation (CHG) technique is a promising candidate.  Dr. D. Xiang (SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, USA) and Dr. W. Wan (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, USA) have recently proposed a scheme to extend the harmonic number of the CHG technique by an order of magnitude using angular-modulated electron beams in the storage ring.  The technique has the potential of generating femtosecond coherent soft X-ray radiation directly from an infrared seed laser.  For more information, see the paper, "Generating Ultrashort Coherent Soft X-Ray Radiation in Storage Rings Using Angular-Modulated Electron Beams", D. Xiang et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 084803 (2010).

An Australian research group has recently published experimentally obtained X-ray mass attenuation coefficients of zinc for 7.2- 15.2 keV X-rays with an absolute accuracy of 0.044% and 0.197%.  For more information, see the paper, "X-ray mass attenuation coefficients and imaginary components of the atomic form factor of zinc over the energy range of 7.2.15.2 keV", N. A. Rae et al., Phys. Rev. A81, 022904 (2010).

Dr. H. Yan (National Synchrotron Light Source II, Brookhaven National Laboratory, USA) has recently reported a comparative study on various kinoform lenses for X-ray nanofocusing.  He employed the geometrical theory, the dynamical diffraction theory, and the beam propagation method, and showed that the geometrical theory becomes invalid.  The influence of the edge diffraction effect from the individual lens element was studied in view of the limit of the focus size.  It was also shown that the length of the lenses can be optimized to reduce the wave field distortion.  For more information, see the paper, "X-ray nanofocusing by kinoform lenses: A comparative study using different modeling approaches", H. Yan, Phys. Rev. B81, 075402 (2010).

Since 2004, NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers Opportunity and Spirit have continued to transmit a wealth of exciting images and extremely valuable analytical data on the surface of Mars, including several pieces of evidence pointing to the existence of water in sedimentary rock.  Unfortunately, Spirit recently got stuck in a sand trap, from which it was helpless to extricate itself because two of its six wheels are not working any more.  Scientists hope that, even in its marooned state, Spirit will be able to measure Martian gravity to determine if the planet is solid or liquid at its core.  For further information, visit the Web page, http://www.nasa.gov/rovers

So far, it has been understood that the only way to realize hard-X-ray mirrors with near 100% reflectivity is the use of total external reflection at grazing incidence to a surface.  Dr. Y. V. Shvyd'ko (Argonne National Lab, USA) and his colleagues have recently proposed to use Bragg reflections from synthetic diamond crystal.  They discussed how it shows an unprecedented reflecting power at normal incidence with meV order narrow bandwidths for hard X-rays.  The optics might be a good candidate for X-ray free-electron laser oscillators (X-FELO).  For more information, see the paper, "High-reflectivity high-resolution X-ray crystal optics with diamonds", Y. V. Shvyd'ko et al., Nature Physics, doi:10.1038/nphys1506; published online, 17 January 2010.

The Science and Technology Foundation of Japan has announced that Japanese and US scientists have been named as laureates of the 2010 (26th) Japan Prize.  Dr. Shun-ichi Iwasaki, 83, Director of Tohoku Institute of Technology in Japan, and also Professor Emeritus, Tohoku University, has received the prize in this year's category of "Industrial production and production technology" for his contributions to high-density magnetic recording technology by developing a perpendicular magnetic recording method.  Dr. Peter Vitousek, Professor of Biology, Stanford University in the United States, 60, was selected in the other prize category of "Biological production and environment" for his contributions to solving global environmental issues based on the analysis of nitrogen and other substances' cycles.  They will receive certificates of merit, and commemorative medals.  There is also a cash award of fifty million Japanese yen for each prize category.  The presentation ceremony is scheduled to be held in Tokyo on Wednesday 21st April, 2010.  The prize categories for the 2011 (27th) Japan Prize will be "Information and communications" and "Bioscience and medical science".  For further information, visit the Web page, http://www.japanprize.jp/en/index.html

A research group led by Professors Y. Takanishi (Kyoto University, Japan) and A. Iida (Photon Factory, KEK, Japan) has recently published its successful investigation into the local layer structure of bent-core liquid crystal, 4-Br-14-O-PIMB, which includes Br atoms.  The group employed a monochromatic X-ray microbeam (3 μm × 4 μm), and observed X-ray scattering from the cell near the Br K absorption edge.  They were able to discover some satellite peaks reflecting the superlattices.  For more information, see the paper, "Microbeam resonant x-ray scattering from bromine-substituted bent-core liquid crystals", Y. Takanishi et al., Phys. Rev. E81, 011701 (2010).

X-ray Photon Correlation Spectroscopy (XPCS) is a novel technique which reveals the slow dynamics of equilibrium and non-equilibrium processes in condensed matter systems.  A group led by Professor N. P. Balsara (University of California, Berkeley, USA) has recently published research on a polystyrene-polyisoprene block copolymer melt in the vicinity of the order-disorder transition.  The group combined several techniques in addition to XPCS; time-resolved small angle X-ray scattering and rheology.  During their studies of ordering kinetics, it was found that two qualitatively different regimes exist, i.e., shallow and deep quench regimes, respectively.  For more information, see the paper, "Dynamic signatures of microphase separation in a block copolymer melt determined by X-ray photon correlation spectroscopy and rheology", A. J. Patel et al., Macromolecules, Article ASAP (DOI: 10.1021/ma902343m).

The UK Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) has announced its withdrawal from the European XFEL project.  Due to financial restrictions, the Council had to reprioritise its budget of ca. 2.7 billion Euro over the next five years.  For more information, visit the UK's science programme prioritisation 2010-2015 web page,

http://www.scitech.ac.uk/About/Stats/Rev/intro.aspx

Dr. G. J. Havrilla (Los Alamos National Lab., USA; one of the associate editors of X-Ray Spectrometry journal) and his colleague recently published a very interesting report on the analysis of picoliter droplets, which can be now accurately prepared using Hewlett-Packard's extremely sophisticated technology.  The research targets application to analytical science, although the instrument is basically designed for inkjet printing and other similar purposes.  It has been shown that dried deposits of single and multielemental solutions generated in picoliter volumes are able to be used as references for micro X-ray fluorescence.  Evaporation can have a strong influence on extremely small amounts at the picoliter level, but the research group successfully devised the optimal instrumental conditions by monitoring X-ray fluorescence intensity.   For more information, see the paper, "Picoliter droplet deposition using a prototype picoliter pipette: Control parameters and application in micro X-ray fluorescence", U. E. A. Fittschen et al., Anal. Chem., 82, 297 (2010).

For many years, substantial effort has been devoted to developing a good mirror for preparing a small X-ray beam.  Professor K. Yamauchi (Osaka University, Japan) and his colleagues have recently reported the breaking of the 10 nm barrier for hard X-rays.  They employed a combination of two mirrors; the surface of the first mirror is deformable, in order to compensate for figure error of the second mirror.  By such an adaptive optical system, the research group attained a beam size of 7 nm at 20 keV.  The experiments were done at BL29XUL, SPring-8.  For more information, see the papers, "Breaking the 10 nm barrier in hard-X-ray focusing", H. Mimura et al., Nature Physics doi:10.1038/nphys1457; published online: 22 November 2009; corrected online: 2 December 2009.

Foamlike, cellular structures of the monolayer of organic capped nanoparticles can sometimes be observed on liquid surfaces.  Professor M. K. Sanyal (Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, India) and his lab members studied the time evolution in the structure and morphology of transferred monolayers of gold-thiol nanoparticles, formed at the air-water interface at different surface pressure, on to a silicon surface.  The research group employed two complementary techniques, X-ray reflectivity and atomic force microscopy (AFM), to see the whole drying-mediated self-assembly of nanoparticles.  For more information, see the paper, "Nanopattern formation in self-assembled monolayers of thiol-capped Au nanocrystals", R. Banerjee et al., Phys. Rev. E80, 056204 (2009).

From right to left: A. Hokura, T. Shiraiwa, S. Ikeda, H. Wakita and H. Hayashi.

So far, X-ray microscopy with many types of lens has achieved great success in the observation of biological cells.  In order to extend the limits of spatial resolution and efficiency, X-ray diffraction microscopy (also called coherent X-ray diffraction imaging), which uses coherent X-rays and some image reconstruction algorithms instead of an optical lens system, is now considered as a promising procedure to see whole cells at once and pick out much smaller features, down to around 10 nm or even less.  A research group led by Professor C. Jacobsen (Stony Brook University, USA) recently reported the results for yeast cells with 520 eV soft X-rays at the Advanced Light Source (ALS) at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, USA.  Dr. A. Madsen (European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), Grenoble, France) and his colleagues observed the cells of the bacteria D. radioduran with 8 keV X-rays.  The advantage of using hard X-rays is the ease of sample handling, and the validity of thin sample approximation for future 3D reconstructions through phasing a diffraction volume.  In both cases, a rapid freezing technique (instead of previously used freeze-drying) was used to avoid the effects of radiation damage from synchrotron X-ray photons.  The Stony Brook group plunged cells in their natural wet state into liquid ethane and maintained them at below -170 ^oC, leading to the reduction of artifacts due to damage from dehydration, ice crystallization, and radiation.  In the ESRF setup, as absorption in air of 8 keV X rays is small, a nonvacuum environment was implemented for ease of sample handling.  Similar to the system for macromolecular crystallography applications, they based the samples in a continuous cryogenic nitrogen gas jet at around -165 ^oC.  The spatial resolution was 25 nm and 30-50 nm, for soft and hard X-rays cases, respectively.  For more information, see the papers, "Soft X-ray diffraction microscopy of a frozen hydrated yeast cell", X. Huang et al., Phys. Rev. Lett., 103, 198101 (2009), and "Cryogenic X-ray diffraction microscopy for biological samples", E. Lima et al., Phys. Rev. Lett., 103, 198102 (2009)

The discovery of X-rays was named the most important modern scientific achievement in a poll conducted for the Science Museum London, beating the Apollo spacecraft and DNA.  Nearly 50,000 members of the public voted in the museum or online.  The emblem of the London museum's centenary is now an X-ray machine.  For further information, visit the museum's Web page, http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/

X-ray absorption microscopy is simple, but has low sensitivity in biological samples that are made of light elements.  X-ray phase contrast imaging can provide contrast that is 3 orders of magnitude greater than X-ray absorption.  However, phase contrast imaging has not been that widely used so far mainly because of the unusual requirements of the experimental setup.  Dr. W. Yashiro (The University of Tokyo, Japan) and his colleagues have recently proposed a novel setup that is feasible.  The research group simply added a transmission grating to the setup for conventional X-ray absorption microscopy with a Fresnel Zone Plate (FZP) objective lens.  Because of the self-imaging phenomenon in Talbot effects, a phase difference image can be produced by the transmission grating placed at the downstream of the back focus of the FZP.  The experiment was done at beamline BL20XU, SPring-8.  For more information, see the paper, "Hard-X-Ray Phase-Difference Microscopy Using a Fresnel Zone Plate and a Transmission Grating", W. Yashiro et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 180801 (2009).

A recent edition of Nature News featured the international race to build X-ray free electron laser facilities. At the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS), Stanford, USA, scientists have succeeded in lasing 8 keV X-rays and started to use them in their research since April, this year (2009).  Meanwhile, soft X-ray laser FLASH, which is a pilot facility for XFEL at the European X-Ray Free-Electron Laser (XFEL), Hamburg, Germany, has been open for scientific use since 2005, and the main XFEL will be completed in 2014.  Nature News interviewed various people both in Stanford (Joachim Stohr, Jerome Hastings and John Bozek) and Hamburg (Heinz Graafsma, Helmut Dosch and Massimo Altarelli).  For more information, see the article, "X-ray free-electron lasers fire up", Eric Hand, Nature 461, 708-709 (2009).

At Stanford's linac coherent light source (LCLS), a great deal of effort has been devoted since April this year to initial scientific tests of an X-ray laser.  In September, scientists attempted to strip all ten electrons from an atom of neon.  They were able to adjust the proportion of different neon species, from non-ionized Ne (no missing electrons) to Ne¹⁰⁺ (lacking all 10 electrons), by fine-tuning the powerful LCLS X-ray beam.  For more information, visit the Web page, http://today.slac.stanford.edu/

It is known that sulfide sometimes play a significant role in the geochemistry of arsenic under reducing conditions.  So far, it has been assumed that sulfide primarily reduced the solubility and mobility of arsenic by precipitation of arsenic-sulfide minerals, As₂S₃, but recent studies indicate that under certain conditions, significant concentrations of soluble As-S compounds can exist in sulfidic waters.  Thus, the question is whether they are As(III)-S species ("thioarsenites") or As(V)-S species ("thioarsenates").  A research group led by Dr. B. Planer-Friedrich (University of Bayreuth, Germany) has recently reported that use of X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XANES and EXAFS) can determine the concentration ratio of each species.  The experiment was done at beamline BM20, ESRF.  For more information, see the paper, "Discrimination of Thioarsenites and Thioarsenates by X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy", E. Suess et al., Anal. Chem., Article ASAP (2009), DOI: 10.1021/ac901094b

Dr. C. T. Chanter and his colleagues have published a paper on the unresolved quantitative discrepancies between experimental and theoretical Cu Kα spectra.  For more information, see the paper, "Theoretical Determination of Characteristic X-Ray Lines and the Copper Kα Spectrum", C. T. Chantler et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 123002 (2009).

Nearly $19 million in funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is supporting the Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source (CHESS), Cornell Electron Storage Ring (CESR) and ongoing efforts to plan and build a new linear accelerator, the Energy Recovery Linac (ERL).  So far, Cornell has received more than 90 ARRA grants, totally about $76 million.  For more information, visit the Web page, http://www.news.cornell.edu/

Japan is celebrating the 1,300th anniversary of Kohfukuji Temple in Nara.  The temple's sculpture of Ashura, one of the greatest treasures of the early to mid-7th century, is on exhibition at Kyushu National Museum in September. The exhibition features some X-ray imaging results of non-destructive observation of the interior of the sculpture. The images establish that the sculpture is still in good condition and also give a lot of information on the materials and methods used in its creation.  Information on Ashura is available at the following Web page, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asura_(Buddhism)

So far, diffusion in solids has been investigated by profiling the depth dependence of tracer atoms diffused into the sample.  Although one can obtain the diffusion constant from this, the question is how diffusion takes place on the atomic scale, rather than on the micron scale.  Sometimes quasielastic neutron scattering as well as Mobauer spectroscopy can be used in a very limited number of fortunate cases.  A research group led by Professor G. Vogl (University of Vienna, Austria) recently reported the use of X-ray photon correlation spectroscopy (XPCS) to observe the dynamics of diffusing atoms.  The research was done for intermetallic alloy Cu₉₀Au₁₀, at temperatures of around 540 K, where the system is a substitutional solid solution, that is, the Au atoms statistically occupy sites in the Cu fcc lattice.  The research gives the dynamical behavior of single atoms as a function of their neighborhood, and confirms quantitatively that Au atoms have a tendency to locally order on a certain set of sites in the crystal.  Photon correlation spectroscopy is based on analysis of 'speckle' patterns, which are fine-scale diffraction patterns that appear in the scattering of coherent light from a disordered system.  Speckle patterns are sensitive to the exact spatial arrangement of the disorder.  By observing the intensity fluctuations in the speckle pattern, the characteristic times of fluctuations in the system can be determined.  For more information, see the paper, "Atomic diffusion studied with coherent X-rays", M. Leitner et al., Nature Materials,8, 717 (2009).

Chandrayaan-1 was a lunar probe launched by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).  It was equipped with advanced X-ray spectrometers for investigation.  After suffering from several technical problems including failure of the star sensors and insufficient thermal shielding, Chandrayaan stopped sending radio signals on August 29, 2009 shortly after which the ISRO officially declared the mission over.  Chandrayaan operated for 312 days from October 2008.  For more information, visit the Web page,http://www.isro.org/Chandrayaan/htmls/home.htm

When a strong laser beam hits the surface of a material, plasma is produced there, subsequently leading to the emission of a short burst of X-rays.  It is believed that the electrons in the surface plasma are accelerated by the strong electric field of the laser and then penetrate the solid behind. There, they knock out electrons from inner electronic shells, which subsequently undergo inner-shell recombination, leading to characteristic line emissions such as Kα and Kβ spectra.  A research group led by Professor U. Teubner (University of Applied Sciences, Emden, Germany) has reported detailed experimental results on copper and titanium K X-rays.  Particular attention has  been paid to the interplay between the angle of incidence of the laser beam on the target, as well as the influence of prepulses.  For more information, see the paper, "Optimized K x-ray flashes from femtosecond-laser-irradiated foils", W. Lu et al., Phys. Rev. E 80, 026404 (2009).

In X-ray diffraction experiments, one measures the intensity (amplitude) of the diffracted X-rays as a function of position in the reciprocal space, and the information on the phase is always missing.  For many years, this so-called phase problem has been thought as one of the biggest problems in X-ray crystallography.  Professor E. Wolf (University of Rochester, New York) has recently published a very interesting and inspirational paper.  He is famous for several important textbooks on optics and also for his presidency of the Optical Society of America.  The present paper is theoretical, and starts with a criticism of basic understanding of the problem. The author says that trying to measure the phase is rather meaningless.  Almost all scientists assume that the incident X-ray beam is monochromatic in the data analysis, but the author points out that a monochromatic beam is not possible in reality.  Any beam that can be produced in a laboratory is, at best, quasimonochromatic and, therefore, even if both the amplitudes and the phases are given, it is still not possible to solve the problem.  Alternatively, the author proposes the measurement of certain correlation functions, with the use of spatially coherent beams.  While it is extremely important to think about a future strategy regarding the final solution of the phase problem as discussed in the paper, the author makes no mention of the recent significant strides in coherent X-ray scattering.  For more information, see the paper, "Solution of the Phase Problem in the Theory of Structure Determination of Crystals from X-Ray Diffraction Experimentst", E. Wolf, Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 075501 (2009).

X-ray phase-contrast imaging is extremely powerful for visualizing internal structures with low-Z matrices, which are most likely in bio-medical specimens.  The use of an X-ray interferometer is one of the most promising ways forward for this imaging technology, but resolution has been limited to the micrometer scale so far.  A research group led by Dr. A. Snigirev (European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, Grenoble, France) has recently developed a novel type of X-ray interferometer employing a bilens system with two parallel arrays of compound refractive lenses, each of which creates a diffraction limited beam under coherent illumination.  The energy of the X-rays is 10-20 keV and the material used in the refractive lenses is silicon.  When the two beams overlap, they produce an interference pattern with fringe spacing ranging from tens of nanometers to tens of micrometers.  Readers may notice that the system is similar to the model of a Billet split lens in classical optics (See Fig.7.8, page 263 in "Principle of Optics", M. Born and E. Wolf, 6^th Ed, Pergamon Press (1988)).  The use of a modern synchrotron source and this novel optical device thus opens up a new field and could revive old theorems.  Coherent moiré imaging or radiography are promising straightforward applications.  For more information, see the paper, "X-Ray Nanointerferometer Based on Si Refractive Bilenses", A. Snigirev et al., Phys. Rev. Lett., 103, 064801 (2009).

The following awards were presented during the plenary session of the 58th Annual Denver X-Ray Conference:

The 2009 Barrett Award was presented to Robert Von Dreele, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL.

The 2009 Jenkins Award was presented to Tim Fawcett, International Centre for Diffraction Data, Newtown Square, PA.

There was no winner for the 2009 Jerome B. Cohen Student Award.

A recent edition of Nature News featured the successful application of a carbon nanotube (CNT)-based X-ray source to medical imaging.  A group led by Professor O. Zhou (University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, USA) has developed a micro 3D CT system.  The main idea behind such very rapid scanning is simply electronic switching of 3D arrayed CNT X-ray sources, rather than mechanical motion.  For more information, see the article, "Nanotubes sharpen X-ray vision", Zeeya Merali, Nature News, doi:10.1038/news.2009.744  The original research papers were published in April 2009 ("A dynamic micro-CT scanner based on a carbon nanotube field emission X-ray source", G Cao et al Phys. Med. Biol. 54, 2323 (2009))

It is well known that the physical properties of semiconductor nanostructures, which have been grown in most cases by the Stranski-Krastanow (SK) mechanism, depend on their size, shape, strain and composition.  In the case of the growth of Ge on Si(001), where the 2D-3D transition is driven by the 4.16% lattice mismatch between Ge and Si, the increase of Ge coverage above a critical thickness of around 4 ML can make coherent islands.  First, square pyramids appear, and then dome-shaped islands are formed.  At about 9 ML, the misfit strain can no longer be accommodated coherently and larger islands called superdomes are present. This raises detailed questions as to dependence on the growth rate, temperature etc.  To provide answers to such questions, in-situ X-ray studies are extremely important.  Professor G. Bauer (Institute of Semiconductor and Solid State Physics, Johannes Kepler University in Linz, Austria) and his colleagues recently performed grazing-incidence small angle X-ray scattering (GISAXS) and diffraction (GID) experiments with a UHV-MBE chamber.  They clarified the kinetics of the growth of Ge superdomes and their facets on Si(001) surfaces, as a function of deposited Ge thickness for different growth temperatures at a low growth rate, by in situ grazing-incidence small-angle x-ray scattering in combination with in situ grazing-incidence x-ray diffraction. At a low growth rate, intermixing is found to be enhanced and superdomes are formed already at lower coverages than previously reported. In addition, the research team observed that at the dome-to-superdome transition, a large amount of material is transferred into dislocated islands, either by dome coalescence or by anomalous coarsening. Once dislocated islands are formed, island coalescence is a rare event and introduction of dislocations is preferred. The superdome growth is thus stabilized by the insertion of dislocations during growth.  For more information, see the paper,   "In situ X-ray scattering study on the evolution of Ge island morphology and relaxation for low growth rate: Advanced transition to superdomes", M.-I. Richard et al., Phys. Rev. B 80, 045313 (2009).

Since 1984, laboratory-scale X-ray lasers have been extensively studied.  The shortest wavelength achieved so far is 3.6 nm, with a weak intensity.  On the other hand, X-ray free-electron lasers (XFEL) based on self-amplified spontaneous emission (SASE) from a long undulator in the linear electron accelerator will be available in near future.  The next idea is the use of XFEL to pump a photoionization inner-shell X-ray laser in an atomic gas.  Dr. R. London (Lawrence Livermore National Lab) and a colleague have recently published their theoretical calculations.  For more information, see the paper, "Atomic inner-shell X-ray laser pumped by an x-ray free-electron laser", N. Rohringer et al., Phys. Rev. A 80, 013809 (2009).

The 2009 workshop on 'buried' interface science with X-rays and neutrons was held at Akihabara campus, Tsukuba University, Japan, on July 13-14, 2009.  The workshop was the latest in a series held since 2001; Tsukuba (December 2001), Niigata (September 2002), Nagoya (July 2003), Tsukuba (July 2004), Saitama (March 2005), Yokohama (July 2006), Kusatsu (August 2006), Tokyo (December 2006), Sendai (July 2007), Sapporo (September 2007), Tokyo (December 2007) and Tsukuba (March 2009).  There are increasing demands for sophisticated metrology in order to observe multilayered materials with nano-structures (dots, wires, etc), which are finding applications in electronic, magnetic, optical and other devices.  X-ray and neutron analysis is known for its ability to observe in a non-destructive manner even 'buried' function interfaces as well as the surface.  In addition to such inherent advantages, recent remarkable advances in micro analysis and quick time-resolved analysis in X-ray reflectometry are extremely important.  The present workshop gathered together those with different research backgrounds, i.e., from semiconductor electronics to chemical bio materials, and even theoretical groups were invited to give insights into unsolved problems on buried interfaces.  The workshop proceedings will be published in Transactions of the Materials Research Society of Japan, no later than the end of 2009.   

Kyushu University has recently constructed its own new beamline at the SAGA Light Source, which is one of Japan's compact synchrotron facilities. For more information, visit the Web page, http://www.saga-ls.jp/

Imaging individual objects of several nanometer resolution in space and several femtosecond resolution in time, is now one of the most exciting experiments in X-ray physics.  Over the past decade, coherent X-ray diffraction has overcome a lot of limits in imaging noncrystalline objects at a resolution in the order of X-ray wavelength.  So far, X-ray free electron lasers (or, in the mean time, 3^rd generation synchrotron sources) have been considered as a promising source, but the table-top source is no doubt extremely important for many new sciences.  Recently, Dr. H. Merdji (CEA Saclay, France) and his colleagues reported the feasibility of a laser-driven soft X-ray source, which uses the 25^th harmonics (32 nm wavelength, 20 fs pulse width) of a Ti:sapphire laser.  They succeeded in observing diffraction patterns from isolated nano-objects with a single 20 fs pulse.  Images were reconstructed with a spatial resolution of 119 nm from the single shot and 62 nm from multiple shots.  For more information, see the paper, "Single-Shot Diffractive Imaging with a Table-Top Femtosecond Soft X-Ray Laser-Harmonics Source", A. Ravasio et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 028104 (2009).

Dr. P. Glatzel (European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), Grenoble, France) and his colleagues recently published an interesting paper reporting systematic studies on both X-ray absorption and Kα emission spectra from sulfur compounds.  The compounds' spectra were compared with quantum chemical calculations using density functional, multiple-scattering, and atomic multiplet theory.  It was found that the near-edge absorption spectra are mainly determined by the geometry of the first coordination sphere in the case of the sulfates and sulfite, while strong orbital hybridization in the case of sulfides results in a much more complex analysis.  On the other hand, the spectral shape of the Kα fluorescence lines shows little influence of the chemical environment, but its energy position is correlated with the valence-shell electron population.  The experiments were done at beamline ID26, ESRF.  The spectrometer used for Kα emission is a combination of a Johansson Si(111) crystal and a CCD camera.  The energy resolution was 0.44 eV for S Kα.  For more information, see the paper, "Electronic Structure of Sulfur Studied by X-ray Absorption and Emission Spectroscopy", R. A. Mori et al., Anal. Chem., Article ASAP, DOI: 10.1021/ac900970z

In January 2006, NASA's Stardust spacecraft brought comet coma particles and interstellar grains from Comet 81P/Wild2.  Synchrotron facilities all over the world have been used for extensive analysis of the chemical composition and crystal structures of the matter.  Recently, Professor L. Vincze (X-ray Microspectroscopy and Imaging Group, Ghent University, Belgium) and his colleagues reported the results of 3D X-ray imaging based on X-ray fluorescence (XRF) tomography.  In the present research, a 200 nm beam was employed, because the typical size of the particles from space was 2 microns.  The measurement consisted of 2D scanning XRF maps for each rotation angle of the sample.  In the XRF spectra, many peaks were found; Ca, Cr, Mn, Fe, Cu, Se etc. For more information, see the paper, "X-ray Fluorescence Nanotomography on Cometary Matter from Comet 81P/Wild2 Returned by Stardust", G. Silversmit et al., Anal. Chem., Article ASAP, DOI: 10.1021/ac900507x  For related work on the same 'star dust' by other groups, for example, see "Chondrulelike Objects in Short-Period Comet 81P/Wild 2", Tomoki Nakamura et al., Science, 321, 1664-1667 (2008) and "Mixing Fraction of Inner Solar System Material in Comet 81P/Wild2", A. J. Westphal et al, The Astrophysical Journal, 694, 18-28 (2009).

As reported here previously, in April this year, the first 1.5 Å wavelength laser light was generated at Stanford, USA.  An interesting account of the hard X-ray laser was published in Nature Photonics.  See the article, "Free electron lasers: First light from hard X-ray laser", B. McNeil, Nature Photonics, 3, 375-377 (2009).

Confocal X-ray micro fluorescence is a method of 3D analysis, and uses the formation of confocal volume (probing microvolume) defined through the intersection of a focused excitation beam and the sensitive volume of a polycapillary lens placed in front of the detector.  Because of increasing demands, the technique has been widely used at both synchrotron and laboratory sources.  However, some essential problems in quantitative analysis have remained so far.  Dr. A-G. Karydas (Institute of Nuclear Physics, N.C.S.R. "Demokritos", Greece) and his colleagues recently published a paper on the influence of the secondary fluorescence enhancement in this technique.  For more information, see the paper, "Secondary Fluorescence Enhancement in Confocal X-ray Microscopy Analysis", D. Sokaras et al., Anal. Chem., Article ASAP, DOI: 10.1021/ac900688n

Demand for learning analytical techniques for surfaces and interfaces appears to be on the increase.  At Tsukuba in Japan, the 3rd tutorial course on the analysis of thin films and multilayers by X-ray reflectivity was held on May 22.  The first Japanese textbook that serves as an introduction to X-ray reflectivity was published in February, and the 7 authors gave lectures as part of the course.  Further information is available at http://www.nims.go.jp/xray/ref/ (in Japanese only).

Xradia, Inc., a developer and manufacturer of ultra-high-resolution 3D X-ray imaging systems, has announced that its scanner was used by researchers at The University of Texas at Austin in the examination of fossil Lucy, the world's most famous ancient human ancestor fossil that dates back 3.2 million years.  The company's Xradia MicroXCT^TM scanner, a 3D X-ray computed tomography system with sub-micron resolution, was used to scan selected pieces of the fossil, and the resulting data will assist in their studies to learn how Lucy's skeleton supported her movement and posture, and how it compares to modern humans and apes.  Lucy is currently on loan from the Ethiopian Government and on tour in the U.S. as part of a world premiere exhibit organized by the Houston Museum of Natural Science.  For further information, visit the web page, http://xradia.com

From right to left: Mr. Matthias Muller (PTB, Ph.D. student, X-ray Spectrometry group), Prof. Mathias Richter (PTB, Head of Department, X-ray Metrology using Synchrotron Radiation), Dr. Burkhard Beckhoff (PTB, Head of X-Ray Spectrometry group), Dr. Kenji Sakurai (NIMS, Group Leader, Quantum Beam Center).

The Chemical Heritage Foundation (CHF) has announced that Dr. Alfred Bader (Cofounder of Aldrich Chemical Company, former chairman of Sigma-Aldrich Corporation) has received the 2009 annual Pittcon Heritage Award.  Jointly sponsored by the Pittsburgh Conference on Analytical Chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy (Pittcon) and CHF, this award recognizes outstanding individuals whose entrepreneurial careers have shaped the instrumentation community, inspired achievement, promoted public understanding of the modern instrumentation sciences, and highlighted the role of analytical chemistry in world economies.  Dr. Bader founded the Aldrich Chemical Company, a fine chemicals company that later would become the Sigma-Aldrich Corporation, the 80^th largest chemical company in the United States.  In 1995, he published his autobiography, "Adventures of a Chemist Collector", which details his experiences from Nazi-era refugee to chemist magnate to fine arts connoisseur.  In 2008, the second autobiography has been published, "Chemistry & Art: Further Adventures of a Chemist Collector".

The use of short pulses of extremely bright synchrotron X-rays has opened up a new world.  In Japan, Dr. S. Adachi (KEK, Tsukuba Japan) and his colleagues recently succeeded in recording movies during changes in the molecule structures of myoglobin.  The samples used are frozen myoglobin crystals that had CO (carbon monoxide) stored inside before the start of the experiments.  Even at 100K, irradiating pulsed laser light gave the trigger for the migration of CO molecules.  To see changes in atomic scale, time-resolved X-ray diffraction measurements were performed.  The obtained movie tells us that the CO molecules penetrate into a number of cavities in the crystal and even expand their size.  The research group has obtained an important result suggesting some self-opening mechanism in the ligand migration channel.  For more information, see the paper, "Visualizing breathing motion of internal cavities in concert with ligand migration in myoglobin", A. Tomita et al., Proceedings of National Academy of Science, 106, 2612-2616 (2009) Published online before print February 9, 2009, doi: 10.1073/pnas.0807774106

An international symposium on micro and trace X-ray analysis was held in Osaka, Japan, on February 12-14, with financial aid from the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST).  Professor K. Tsuji (Osaka City Univ.) organized the symposium, which had 102 participants including 12 scientists from outside Japan.  In addition to highly sophisticated analytical experiments with brilliant synchrotron radiation, recent progress regarding the instrumentation and applications of laboratory/mobile X-ray sources was extensively discussed.  The speakers were as follows; P. Wobrauschek (Atominstitut, TU Wien), K. Janssens (Antwerp Univ.), A. Hokura (Tokyo Univ. of Sci.), K. Nakano (Osaka City Univ.), A. von Bohlen (ISAS Institute for Anal. Sci.), S. Maeo (Osaka Electro-Comm. Univ.), Y. Kataoka (Rigaku), G. Havrilla (Los Alamos National Lab), C. Numako (Tokushima Univ.), K. Hayashi (Tohoku Univ.), T. Sakae (Nihon Univ.), K. Sakurai (National Inst. for Materials Sci.), S. Hayakawa (Hiroshima Univ.), K. Tsuji (Osaka City Univ.), S. B. Dabagov (INFN, Frascati), N. Gao (X-Ray Optical Systems, Inc.), H. Soejima (Shimadzu), K. Taniguchi (Inst. of X-ray Tech. Co., Ltd), J. E. Fernandez (Bologna Univ.),  H. Kumagai (Osaka City Univ.), A. Bando (Horiba Ltd.), K. Yamauchi (Osaka Univ.), B. De Samber (Ghent Univ.), Y. Kagoshima (Hyogo Univ.), C. Streli (Atominstitut, TU Wien), P. Pianetta (SLAC, Stanford), S. Shimoyama (Kibi International Univ.), R. Van Grieken (Antwerp Univ.).  The proceedings booklet is available from the organizer, Phone/Fax: +81-6-6605-3080, tsuji@a-chem.eng.osaka-cu.ac.jp

In classical metallurgy, there exists a very famous rule known as Hume-Rothery's rule, which describes the conditions necessary for the formation of a solid solution from two independent metals.  In order to have a substitutional crystalline solid solution in which the atoms of one element randomly substitute for atoms of another element in a crystal structure, the components must have an atomic size within 15% and electronegativity within 0.4 of each other.  According to this rule, a Ce-Al solid solution cannot be obtained.  Recently, a research team led by Professor H.K. Mao (Carnegie Institution of Washington) and Professor R. Ahuja (Uppsala University) found during high pressure research on the intermetallic compound of Ce₃Al that a solid solution is formed in a Ce-Al system.  The differences in radii and electronegativity of Ce and Al were diminished by applying pressure.  Both synchrotron X-ray studies (XRD and X-ray absorption spectroscopy) and ab initio calculations showed the same cause for bringing the two elements closer in radii and electronegativity, resulting in the new alloy phase.  Even after the release of pressure, this substitutional alloy remained.  During in-situ X-ray absorption measurements at the Ce LIII edge, conspicuous changes in the sharpness of the absorption, correlated to delocalization of 4f electrons, were observed.  For more information, see the paper, "Substitutional alloy of Ce and Al", Q-S.Zeng et al., Proceedings of National Academy of Science, 106, 2515-2518 (2009) Published online before print February 2, 2009, doi: 10.1073/pnas.0813328106

Eu is one of the most interesting lanthanides, compounds of which often exhibit remarkable optical, electrical, and magnetic properties.  Therefore, it is extremely important to develop a technique for chemical state analysis.  The X-ray emission spectra of Eu had not been thought to exhibit significant chemical effects.  A research group led by Professor H. Hayashi (Japan Women's Univ) firstly found a large chemical shift (~5 eV) in Eu Lγ₄ emission line, depending on the valence state.  They discussed the feasibility of using this as a probe for spin- and valence-selective X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy.  For more information, see the paper, "Probe for spin- and valence-selective X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy: EuLγ₄ emission", H. Hayashi et al., Anal. Chem., 81, 1522 (2009).

X-ray absorption spectroscopy is one of the most powerful probes of molecular structures.  So far, applications have been limited to the steady state and/or quite slowly changing systems.  Recently, Professor M. Chergui (Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, (EPFL), Switzerland) and his colleagues reported a very impressive ultrafast X-ray absorption experiment.  There is a large class of Fe(II)-based molecular complexes that show two electronic states closely spaced in energy: a low-spin (LS) singlet and a high-spin (HS) quintet state. They therefore exhibit spin crossover (SCO) behavior, wherein conversion from a LS ground state to a HS excited state (or the reverse) can be induced by small changes in temperature and pressure or by light absorption.  The studies were done for an aqueous solution of [Fe^II(bpy)₃]²⁺, which serves as a model system for the family of Fe(II)-based SCO complexes.  A 100-mm-thick free-flowing liquid jet of an aqueous solution of 50 mM [Fe^II(bpy)₃]²⁺ was excited by an intense 400-nm laser pulse (115-fs pulse width, repetition rate 1 kHz), and a tunable femtosecond hard X-ray pulse from the slicing source was used to probe the system in transmission mode at 2 kHz.  The X-ray flux was about 10 photons/pulse at 7 keV.  The time resolution was under 250 fs.  By recording the intensity of a characteristic near edge absorption spectral feature as a function of laser pump/X-ray probe time delay, the very early stages of photo excitation in Fe(II)-based complexes were clarified.  For more information, see the paper, "Femtosecond XANES Study of the Light-Induced Spin Crossover Dynamics in an Iron(II) Complex", Ch. Bressler et al., Science, 323, 489 (2009).

The Science and Technology Foundation of Japan has announced that two US scientists have been named as laureates of the 2009 (25th) Japan Prize.  Dr. Dennis L. Meadows, 66, Professor Emeritus of Systems Policy, University of New Hampshire and one of the authors of the report, "The Limits to Growth," for the Club of Rome in 1972, has received the prize in this year's category of "Transformation towards a sustainable society in harmony with nature".  Dr. David E. Kuhl, 79, Professor of Radiology, University of Michigan Medical School, was selected in the other prize category of "Technological integration of medical science and engineering".  They will receive certificates of merit, and commemorative medals.  There is also a cash award of fifty million Japanese yen for each prize category.  The presentation ceremony is scheduled to be held in Tokyo at the National Theatre on Wednesday 23rd April, 2009.  The prize categories for the 2010 (26th) Japan Prize will be "Industrial Production and Production Technology" and "Biological Production and Environment".  For further information, visit the Web page, http://www.japanprize.jp/en/index.html

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has granted "Critical Decision 3" (CD-3) status to the National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II) at Brookhaven National Laboratory, approving the start of construction in fiscal year (FY) 2009 and scheduling completion in FY 2015.  A total project cost for NSLS-II of $912 million has been approved.  NSLS-II is expected to be the world's first storage-ring-based synchrotron light source that combines nanometer spatial resolution with high brightness, coherence, and beam stability, enabling nanometer-scale characterization of materials, with powerful applications in nanotechnology and biotechnology.  For more information about the NSLS-II project, visit the website at http://www.bnl.gov/nsls2/

Laser generation in the X-ray region has become realistic because of the construction of free electron laser facilities, which will be available in the near future (Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) at Stanford in 2009; European XFEL in 2014).  Another significant route is the extension of existing laser technologies such as high-order harmonic generation (HOHG), particularly from relativistically oscillating plasma mirror-like surfaces.  Professor M. Zepf (Queens University Belfast, UK) and his colleagues recently published an interesting paper showing that it is possible to achieve a near-diffraction-limited focal spot size that is also controllable.  For more information, see the paper, "Diffraction-limited performance and focusing of high harmonics from relativistic plasmas", B. Drome et al., Nature Physics, advanced online publication doi:10.1038/nphys1158

Professor T. Rayment (School of Chemistry, University of Birmingham, UK) and his colleagues have developed a channel-flow cell to study electrochemical reactions on electrodes by time-resolved X-ray absorption spectroscopy.  During the studies with the model system, it was found that a flowing solution is essential to remove any products of beam damage.  For more information, see the paper, "Channel-Flow Cell for X-ray Absorption Spectroelectrochemistry", R. J. K. Wiltshire et al., J. Phys. Chem., C 113, 308 (2009)

Lyncean Technologies, Inc., which was founded in Palo Alto, California, in 2001 by Stanford Professor Ronald Ruth's group, recently announced that its Compact Light Source (CLS) successfully performed hard X-ray phase contrast imaging.  Some results appear on the cover of the January 2009 issue of the Journal of Synchrotron Radiation.  The CLS is a miniature synchrotron which uses inverse Compton scattering to produce high-intensity, tunable, quasi-monochromatic X-ray beams.  For more information, visit the Web page, http://www.lynceantech.com  Their first scientific results are published in the paper, "Hard X-ray phase-contrast imaging with the Compact Light Source based on inverse Compton X-rays", M. Bech et al., J. Synchrotron Rad. 16, 43 (2009).

Toshihisa Horiuchi, the co-author of the first total-reflection X-ray fluorescence (TXRF) paper, has died from colorectal cancer at the age of 66 at a hospital in Fukuoka, Japan, where his son is a doctor.  Horiuchi was a student at Kurume National College of Technology. Immediately after finishing school, he started work as a technical staffer at Professor Y. Yoneda's lab, Kyushu University. He became convinced that the use of a new detector would be crucial for opening up new opportunities in X-ray spectroscopy, and he eagerly proposed that his supervisor purchase Si(Li) and Ge detectors, although they were too expensive for the university lab at that time.  One of the most important applications for the then new detectors was TXRF. The paper, "Optical Flats for Use in X-Ray Spectrochemical Microanalysis", Rev. Sci. Instrum. 42, 1069 (1971) is a very famous work. This reported the first successful results of TXRF. Horiuchi was aware of the significance of trace analysis of bio-medical specimens such as blood etc, and he wanted to employ TXRF for such applications. After the death of Professor Yoneda, he moved to another lab and worked in the field of organic thin films for electronic devices.  He contributed substantially to both research and teaching students.  On February 14, 2009 at Osaka City University, Japan, Professor K. Matsushige (Kyoto University), who had supervised Horiuchi for more than 18 years, gave a memorial speech, taking advantage of the opportunity of the international symposium on micro and trace X-ray analysis.  The participants offered a silent prayer for Horiuchi.

Diffractive imaging is a technique for so-called lens-less microscopy, and uses diffraction intensity (image) and phase retrieval calculations rather than focusing systems such as lenses, which are not free from aberrations.  The spatial resolution is basically limited only by the amount of high-angle scattering.  Therefore, the technique has been considered as having the potential to achieve atomic resolution for hard X-rays or other short-wavelength particle beams.  However, so far, the reported results have been still at the level of several nanometers.  Recently, a research group at the University of Illinois, USA proposed a method of improving the resolution.  One of the biggest technical reasons limiting the spatial resolution of diffractive imaging is the difficulty of recording weak coherent scattering signals.  The research group proposes the combined use of low-resolution imaging, which provides the starting phase, real-space constraint, missing information in the central beam and essential marks for aligning the diffraction pattern.  The group used an electron microscope to see a single CdS quantum dot with sub-angstrom resolution and noted that it is possible to use the same procedure in the case of coherent X-ray scattering.  For more information, see the paper, "Sub-angstrom-resolution diffractive imaging of single nanocrystals", W. J. Huang et al., Nature Physics, advanced online publication doi:10.1038/nphys1161

Eugene P. Bertin, author of the most famous XRF textbooks and a very popular instructor in XRF courses, has died at the age of 86, in his apartment in Harrison, NJ, USA.  Dr. Bertin was a student at the University of Illinois, in Urbana and received his B.S., M.S., and finally PhD in 1952, in Analytical/Inorganic Chemistry.  He worked at the RCA Research Center in Princeton, NJ for many years.  Dr. Bertin made many contributions to X-ray spectroscopy.  He was the principle lecturer at the "Short summer course in X-ray spectrometry" (organized by Professor Henry Chessin, State University of New York at Albany), and also at ICDD XRF courses.  His textbooks, "Principles and Practice of X-Ray Spectrometric Analysis" (Plenum, 1970 (first edition), 1975 (second edition)) and "Introduction to X-Ray Spectrometric Analysis" (Kluwer Academic Pub, 1978) were recognized as the best in the world and were hallmark texts used by thousands of people all over the world.  Reviews of these books have been published in X-Ray Spectrometry journal (See, 1, 45 (1972), 4, A18 (1975), 8, v (1979)).  Another interesting review is found in J. Appl. Cryst., 5, 387 (1972).  Dr. Bertin was a recipient of the Birks Award at the 1988 Denver Conference.  One of his best friends, Dr. V. E. Buhrke has posted an article, "Testimonial and Obituary - in honor of Dr. Eugene P. Bertin, PhD" to the XRF-L mailing list, which can be also read at (http://listserv.syr.edu/scripts/wa.exe?A2=ind0812&L=xrf-l&T=0&F=&S=&P=1003).

Professor L. Natarajan (University of Mumbai, India) recently published a paper calculating the energies and electric dipole rates of X-rays from the empty K shells of atoms in the range of Z=12 to 56.  For more information, see the paper, "Relativistic fluorescence yields for hollow atoms in the range 12<Z<56", L. Natarajan, Phys. Rev. A78, 052505 (2008).

Our lab signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for research collaboration on the "nanotechnology-driven advanced materials metrology research, X-ray physics and its industrial metrology applications, nanoscale materials characterizations" with Center for Measurement Standards (CMS), Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), Taiwan. The two institutions agreed to promote exchanges of researchers, information, publication of the results of the research and/or the implementation of cooperative research. Both sides are interested in developing and establishing novel advanced metrology as well as the international standardization in Asia-Pacific region.

The significance of the collaboration between NIMS and ITRI was first discussed during the 2007 APEC Nanoscale Measurement Technology Forum, held in Taipei, September, 2007. Dr. Kenji Sakurai (NIMS, Group Leader, Quantum Beam Center) gave an invited lecture on X-ray metrology for nanotechnologies there.

Some of the most well known self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) are alkyl sulfides on gold surfaces.  They have many potential applications in molecular electronics, biosensors, and nanopatterning.  However, there have still been unsolved problems in basic research regarding Au-S interaction.  Recently, Professor A. Morgante (Universita' di Trieste, Italy) and his colleagues published the results of grazing incidence X-ray diffraction and density functional theory-based molecular dynamics simulations for hexanethiol and methylthiol.  The research group demonstrated surface complexes wherein two S atoms are joined by an intermediate Au adatom (RS-Au-SR) for longer chain cases. It was found that the sulfur atoms of the molecules bind at two distinct surface sites, and that the first surface layer contains vacancies as well as gold adatoms that are laterally bound to two sulfur atoms.  Competition between SAM ordering and disordering of interfacial Au atoms takes an important role in the system.  For more information, see the paper, "X-ray Diffraction and Computation Yield the Structure of Alkanethiols on Gold(111)", A. Cossaro et al., Science, 321, 943-946 (2008).

Our lab signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for research collaboration on the X-ray physics and industrial radiography with Chalk River Laboratories, Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL), Ontario, Canada.  The two institutions agreed to promote exchanges of researchers, information, publication of the results of the research and/or the implementation of cooperative research.  AECL is responsible for the research and development of Canada deuterium uranium (CANDU) nuclear reactors.  Both sides understand the significance of novel advanced X-ray technologies for non-destructive examination.

From right to left: Dr. Dag Horn (AECL, Section Head, NDE Technologies), Dr. William Kupferschmidt (AECL, Vice-President & General Manager, R&D), Dr. Robert Tapping (AECL, Director, Components and Systems Division), Dr. Nigel Fisher (AECL, Branch Manager, IMD), Dr. Kenji Sakurai (NIMS, Group Leader, Quantum Beam Center), Dr. Krassimir Stoev (AECL, Research Scientist, NDE Section).

Proferssor Rene Van Grieken was awarded the Birks Award.

Andrew Lang, Emeritus Professor of Physics at the University of Bristol, has died.  Born in 1924 at St Annes-on-Sea in the UK, Professor Lang obtained a First-Class Honours London External BSc in Physics at Exeter in 1944, a London External MSc in 1947 and a Cambridge PhD in 1953.  He worked in industrial research in the UK (Lever Brothers and Unilever Ltd) and in the USA (Philips Laboratories, Irvington-on-Hudson, NY).  He was Assistant Professor of Physical Metallurgy at Harvard University (1954-1959) before moving to the University of Bristol.  He became Professor of Physics in 1979.  Professor Lang achieved fame for his pioneering studies in X-ray diffraction physics, especially his original technique of X-ray topography, i.e., the 'Lang method' or 'Lang Camera', which displays the internal imperfections in a crystal, such as dislocations, stacking faults, growth-sector boundaries and ferromagnetic domains.  The method has been widely used in the non-destructive assessment of crystals for the electronics and diamond industries, among others.  Professor Lang studied many types of X-ray diffraction phenomena, including variations from Bragg's law, X-ray moire patterns and other types of fringes.  One of his most important discoveries (in collaboration with Professor N. Kato (1923-2002)) was the presence of interference fringes in wedge-shaped perfect crystals, leading to a precise measure of absolute structure amplitude from a unit cell (See the paper, "A study of pendellosung fringes in X-ray diffraction", Acta Cryst. 12, 787 (1959)).  Professor Lang is also known for his research using other techniques, such as electron microscopy and cathode-luminescence.  In 1964, he was awarded the Charles Vernon Boys Prize of the Institute of Physics and the Physical Society.  He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1975 and was awarded the Royal Society Hughes Medal in 1997.  An obituary by Professor M. Moore can be found in the Journal of Applied Crystallography, 41, 825 (2008).  The Independent (August 25, 2008) carried an obituary as well.

Vadim Ivanovitch Nefedov, a member of the Russian Academy of Science (RAS), has died in Moscow due to cancer at the age of 70.  Born in Magnitogorsk in the USSR, Professor Nefedov graduated from the Physicochemical Institute of Leipzig University in 1962.  At Leipzig, he was one of the first research students of Armin Meisel at the Laboratory for X-Ray Spectroscopy.  In 1965, he completed a post-graduate course at the Kurnakov Institute of General and Inorganic Chemistry, RAS, where he continued to work and later became head of a laboratory.  Nefedov's main scientific work concerns physical chemistry by electron and X-ray spectroscopy, in particular, chemical binding and the structures of many types of materials and compounds.  He published more than 400 papers and 10 monographs, which are very useful as comprehensive handbooks in this field.  Professor Nefedov formulated an original theory of electron density transfer between ligands and predicted a cis-effect in compounds of nontransition metals, which was confirmed later in experiments.  He developed a method for determining the effective charge of atoms in compounds and Madelung energy, which offered a new way of calculating the energy of chemical bonds.  He provided a theoretical basis and developed an experimental procedure for quantitative X-ray photoelectron analysis of the surface of solids and depth profiling.  Nefedov was awarded the 1985 USSR State Prize, 1989 RSFSR State Prize, the international title of X-ray Professor (1998), and the 2000 and 2005 Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Prizes.  An obituary by Professors R. Szargan, E. Z. Kurmaev and C. E. Fadley can be found in the Journal of Electron Spectroscopy and Related Phenomena, 168, 47 (2008).

http://www.helmholtz.de/en/research/research_awards/helmholtz_humboldt_research_award/

X-ray Bragg diffraction can determine crystal structures.  So far, however, distinguishing between right- and left-handed crystals has not been done by ordinary X-ray diffraction.  Japanese scientists led by Professor S. Shin (RIKEN & The University of Tokyo) recently succeeded in revealing the chirality of crystals by measuring Bragg diffraction near the absorption edge, using circular polarization of synchrotron X-rays at the SPring-8.  Reflections only allowed at resonant conditions have been well interpreted for the α-quartz case.  For more information, see the paper, "Right Handed or Left Handed? Forbidden X-Ray Diffraction Reveals Chirality", Y. Tanaka et al., Phys. Rev. Lett., 100, 145502 (2008).

As an X-ray free-electron laser (X-FEL) provides extremely strong pulses, it is necessary to understand the photon-induced damage processes for biological samples.  A research group led by Dr. Chapman (DESY, Germany and Lawrence Livermore National Lab, USA) has discussed how several aspects of existing continuum damage models can be tested during early operation of X-FEL at lower X-ray energies in the range of 0.8-5 keV and low fluences, focusing particularly on macroscopic collective effects such as particle charging, expansion, and average ionization of nanospheres.  For more information, see the paper, "Modeling of the damage dynamics of nanospheres exposed to x-ray free-electron-laser radiation", S. P. Hau-Riege et al., Phys. Rev. E77, 041902 (2008).