Last week an official opening ceremony for the ASTRA beamline (formerly SOLABS) was held in the National Synchrotron Radiation Centre SOLARIS. The new beamline is dedicated to measurements using X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) in the energy range of 1 keV to 15 keV. The ceremony was attended by a number of distinguished guests, including the international team involved in the building of the beamline.
The ASTRA beamline was created thanks to the cooperation of 4 research institutions, the Hochschule Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences (Germany), the Synchrotron Light Research Institute (Thailand), and the Institute of Physics at Bonn University (Germany), and the SOLARIS Centre. More than 25 scientists and technicians were involved in the entire project of the beamline's creation and further development, and the work was coordinated by Prof. Josef Hormes (University of Bonn), Prof. Alexander Prange (Hochschule Niederrhein), Dr Wantana Klysubun (SLRI), and from the SOLARIS side by Dr Alexey Maximenko and Dr Marcin Zajac.
The ASTRA line was specifically designed for XAS (X-ray absorption spectroscopy) measurements in the X-ray range known as the "tender energy range." Research conducted on the beamline will contribute to developments in such fields as materials science, physics, chemistry, biomedicine, and environmental studies. The beamline opens up opportunities for cooperation with the rubber, agricultural, chemical, and cosmetic industries.
The JU National Synchrotron Radiation Centre SOLARIS, built in 2010-2015, is the first of its kind in Central Eastern Europe. Synchrotrons, sources of a unique type of light known as synchrotron radiation, allow scientists from around the world to achieve breakthroughs in a multitude of disciplines, such as physics, chemistry, medicine, archaeology, and art history.
