APS Upgrade and SEES APS beamlines in 2025

This page gives status information on the SEES beamlines at the APS during the APS Upgrade. We intend to make periodic updates here, but there will be many developments in 2025 and into 2026, and some of this information may become out-of-date within a few months. We will try to keep the information here as accurate as we can.

This page was last updated on 7-May-2025.

The Advanced Photon Source (APS) has recently undergone a major upgrade (APS-U) that has dramatically enhanced the brightness and coherence of the X-ray source. Commissioning of the new storage ring started in April 2024, and the process of bringing our SEES-funded beamlines back online has been underway. You can read more about APS-U at https://www.aps.anl.gov/APS-Upgrade

Return to User Operations

This is based on the current commissioning progress. As of May 16, 2025, four of our beamlines will return to full user operations for the upcoming scheduled 2025-2 cycle, while the others will remain in Scientific Commissioning. All SEES beamlines at the APS will participate in the 2025-3 GUP call, and any users wishing to be considered for beamtime on any beamline should submit a GUP. We do anticipate that Rapid Access Proposals will be accepted for Sector 13 beamlines for the 2025-2 cycle. Details are provided below for each station.

Storage ring status

Disclaimer: This is our latest understanding. If you see or hear other information from the APS, that may be more accurate than what we have here.

To date, APS accelerator physicists have successfully stored up to 200 mA of ring current and demonstrated the world’s first electron bunch swap-out capabilities (https://www.aps.anl.gov/APS-News/2024-04-30/worlds-first-successful-multi-bunch-swap-out-injection-demonstrated-at-the). At present, ring currents of 100-200 mA are typical, with currents of <200 mA during scheduled timing-mode operations. There are still more beam dumps and unexpected downtimes than many users have come to expect from the APS, but this has improved dramatically during the 2025-1 cycle. This is to be expected from a new machine, and we are confident this will continue to improve. In the meantime, experiments should allow for unexpected downtime.

Beamline Commissioning Status

The APS defines three phases of beamline commissioning prior to the resumption of General User Operations:

Operations Commissioning, during which radiation safety shielding verification is conducted. All SEES beamlines at the APS have completed this phase.
Technical Commissioning, during which beamline components are tested and aligned with X-rays. Only beamline staff may participate. All SEES beamlines at the APS have completed this phase.
Scientific Commissioning, during which early experiments designed to test, debug, and characterize the beamline systems are carried out. This phase may include experiments with external users (and includes acceptance of some GU proposals). SEES beamlines at the APS have either completed this phase or are at this commissioning stage as of 2025-2.

You can track the progress of all APS beamlines through these phases here. The current commissioning status of SEES beamlines at the APS is as follows:

3-ID (Nuclear Resonant Scattering)

Current Status: Restart of General User Program

Users can perform Nuclear Resonant Inelastic X-ray Scattering (NRIXS) and Nuclear Forward Scattering (NFS) from ⁵⁷Fe-contained samples with a focus size of 1.5 by 12 microns in the horizontal and vertical direction, respectively. In the coming 2025-2 run, focusing size of about 10×10 microns for ⁸³Kr, ¹⁵¹Eu, and ¹⁶¹Dy nuclear resonance experiments will be available. Meanwhile, the ¹¹⁹Sn nuclear resonance experiment can be performed at 30-ID, APS.

Sample environments: Low temperatures, high pressure, and combined low temperatures and high pressures.

Under development: A new laser-heating diamond anvil cell system for high-pressure high-temperature studies.

6-BM (Multi-Anvil Press)

Current Status: Restart of General User Program

Scientific Commissioning is complete, and the Multi-Anvil Press program on the B station will fully restart its General User Program for 2025-2.

13-BM-C (Diamond Anvil Cell; Surface/Interface Science; In-Situ Powder Diffraction)

Current Status: Restart of General User Program

The 13-BM-C station will restart the General User Program for 2025-2. The optics and equipment for this beamline are working well, and several users have already conducted successful experiments.

13-BM-D (Computed Microtomography; Diamond Anvil Cell; Large Volume Press)

Current Status: Restart of General User Program

Anticipated restart of General User Program in 2025-2. The vertical focusing mirror for this branch was sent out for re-polishing to be able to better handle the coherence of the beam. It has now been reinstalled, and commissioning is underway. This mirror is needed for vertical focusing for DAC experiments and pink-beam imaging, and tomography. All methods have been able to do some scientific commissioning, and several users have already conducted successful experiments.

The LVP program is back to user operation at 100% level. The multi-anvil system (D-DIA) operates at both (quasi)hydrostatic and deformation mode using monochromatic radiation up to 65 keV. The high-pressure microtomography mostly operates at white-beam mode, with pink-beam tomography. Both systems can be combined with ultrasonic interferometry and acoustic emission.

13-ID-C/D (Diamond Anvil Cell; Large Volume Press; Surface/Interface Science)

Current Status: Scientific Commissioning

Scientific commissioning with first users supported in 2025-1. The monochromator for this branch has undergone a major upgrade, and some mono-commissioning activities are ongoing, interspersed with early user experiments.

The LVP program has commissioned white beam capabilities and is ready to begin commissioning monochromatic beam capabilities.

The DAC program is now replacing its optical table and will be commissioning new high-precision focusing optics during 2025-2. The new Eiger 9M detector is on hand and ready for use.

For the surface and interface program, the diffractometer in ID-C is undergoing an upgrade to include a fast phi rotation stage and a hexapod sample positioner. The installation and commissioning of these components is occurring now.

13-ID-E (X-ray Microprobe)

Current Status: Restart of General User Program

Scientific Commissioning with first users began in 2025-1. The 2025-2 cycle will see a return to full General User operations for the miocroprobe station, even though some optics improvements are still planned. The monochromator and double-horizontal mirrors are in place and are being commissioned. At some point in the coming months, the crystal cage for the ID-E monochromator will be upgraded for better thermal management. The new high-precision KB focusing optics for the end-station are in hand, but the bender mechanism needs some modification to use these, and we expect that to happen in the next few months. Commissioning has started with the older, existing KB mirrors (already achieving ~750nm focused spot using the new source!).