RI Research Instruments in Germany has been awarded a contract by Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin to build a cryogenically cooled permanent magnet undulator including a liquid-nitrogen cryocooler system. The cutting-edge undulator will generate photons for the upcoming Soft-to-Tender X-ray Spectroscopy beamline at the BESSY II x-ray source for battery research. Shown above are examples of undulator and closed-loop cryocooler systems from RI.
Basically, a permanent magnet undulator is an insertion device used in particle accelerators to channel high-energy electrons into a wavy, oscillating path. As the electrons wiggle, they emit incredibly intense, narrow, and highly directional beams of X-rays or ultraviolet light used for scientific research. The magnetic structure typically consists of two parallel arrays of alternating permanent magnets. As an electron beam travels down the center between these arrays, the reversing north and south poles cause the electrons to weave left and right.
“We are happy to be working on such a bright photon source and look forward to seeing it illuminate many groundbreaking experiments at HZB,” says the company. Based about 20 km from Cologne and with a team of around 400 people, RI builds engineered products for scientific facilities such as particle accelerators and beamline instrumentation, cryocoolers, undulators and wigglers used in fundamental research projects, also products for fusion development, medical and semiconductor applications.
