THE ELECTRONIC ALADDIN NEWSLETTER NO. 9

USERS MEETING AT THE MARCH APS MEETING IN KANSAS CITY

Instead of the traditional SRC Users Meeting, there will be a gathering on Sunday, March 16 at the site of the APS March Meeting in Kansas City, plus a topical workshop (see item 3). This reduces the travel burden for a large community of SRC users and allows taking advantage of inexpensive Saturday-night air fares. The Users Advisory Committee will also meet that day. We are considering a late afternoon plus evening event, where SRC staff will give an update of the SRC facilities and future plans. During dinner, the Aladdin Lamp Award will be presented for the best thesis performed at SRC. Suggestions about the program are welcomed. Send them to Franz Himpsel (himpsel@comb.physics.wisc.edu) or Pam Layton (playton@src.wisc.edu).
For planning the room and other logistics please send a note to Pam Layton (playton@src.wisc.edu) about how many persons will tentatively attend.

RENAMING OF SRC

At their meeting on December 6, the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System approved a proposal to rename SRC the Ednor M. Rowe Synchrotron Radiation Center. A rededication ceremony will be held in the spring.

SRC WORKSHOP ON MCD AND MAGNETIC NANOSTRUCTURES

The first of a series of workshops on SRC-related topics was held on November 16. It brought researchers and students in magnetism and surface physics together, leading to lively discussions that lasted well past the originally-scheduled cocktail hour. SRC staff got a lot of input on what type of experiments to plan for. Several beam lines and end stations at the SRC are dedicated to research on magnetism, such as two MCD chambers that can be used with the 10m TGM and HERMON monochromators, a magnetic scattering setup at the multilayer beam line, a photoelectron microscope, and a spin-polarized, angle-resolved hotoemission station at the 30 period undulator. Among the topics discussed:

MAGNETIC X-RAY SCATTERING GETS ATTENTION

Work carried out by Jim MacKay and co-workers at the multilayer beam line at SRC has generated considerable interest (see a recent publication in Phys. Rev. Lett. 77, 3925, 1996 and a discussion of this work in Physics Today 49, November 1996, p. 21). The special feature of this experiment is its capability to determine the magnetic roughness of interfaces, in addition to the usual, structural roughness. Measuring the scattering of soft X-rays in the anomalous region of the 2p-to-3d absorption edge allows it to obtain elemental contrast by tuning into the edge of a specific element. In addition, magnetic contrast is obtained by using circularly-polarized light and detecting the difference in scattering for opposite sample magnetizations. This experiment showed that the magnetization distribution at cobalt/copper interfaces is smoother than the geometric Co/Cu interface. Co/Cu multilayers are used in prototype structures for the next generation of magnetoresistive reading heads for magnetic storage disks. Interface roughness has been found to affect their magnetoresistance, but the mechanism for this effect is still unclear, thus providing an interesting target for magnetic scattering experiments.

AWARDS FOR SRC RESEARCHERS

Prof. Michael Bancroft
(University of Western Ontario)
. . . was awarded the Chemical Institute of Canada Medal 1996.

Prof. Leonard Brillson
(Ohio State University)
. . . was awarded a Surface Science Excllence award by Surface Science Magazine for the most highly cited article in surface science since 1980 (and the most cited article in Surface Science Reports).

TANTALUS SHIPPED TO THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION

On Wednesday, December 11, 1996 half of the Tantalus storage ring was shipped to the Smithsonian in Washington DC. It will eventually be on display in the Museum of American History as part of an exhibit devotedto electron storage rings and synchrotron radiation research.

CALL FOR BEAM TIME PROPOSALS

A letter requesting beam time proposals for the period from August '97 to July '98 went out recently. Due date is February 7, 1997. If you do not receive a Beamtime Request form and would like one, please contact Pam Layton (playton@src.wisc.edu).

SOLICITATION OF NOMINATIONS FOR THE ALADDIN LAMP AWARD

The Aladdin Lamp Award is awarded annually for the best PhD thesis performed at SRC. The '96 award will be handed out at the Users Meeting Sunday evening before the March Meeting in Kansas City (March 16, 1997, see item 1). Send nominations to:

which include the following:
1. A brief letter of nomination from the applicant's advisor. This letter should clearly state the role of the applicant in the research project.
2. An extended abstract (4 page maximum, including figures) of the work performed at SRC, written by the applicant.
3. The applicant's curriculum vitae including publications and work in progress.
4. Supporting material, such as preprints/reprints can be submitted, but is not required.

Deadline is February 7, 1997.

Franz J. Himpsel
Dept. of Physics, University of Wisconsin Madison
1150 University Ave.
Madison, WI 53706-1390
Tel: 608-263-5590, -262-5047, -877-2138 Fax: 608-265-2334
Web page: http://www.physics.wisc.edu/~himpsel/
E-MAIL: himpsel@comb.physics.wisc.edu