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Cryogenic Permanent Magnet Undulator (CPMU) source for the BRIGHT Nanoprobe beamline

Nanoprobe beamline (NANO) - under construction

The Nanoprobe beamline will focus hard X-rays at 60-300 nm length-scales, facilitating a broad range of X-ray investigations at the Australian Synchrotron.  Multiple complementary contrast methods can be applied - often simultaneously - with the analytical volume defined by the volume of specimen illuminated by the focused beam.  By scanning the specimen through the focus the Nanoprobe will map a specimen’s properties including structure and composition, with resolution equal to the size of the focused spot.

Beamline Updates

Major contracts awarded & progress summary

 

Nanoprobe: work packages, contractor and progress summary. July 2025.
Work PackageContractorStatus
Cryogenic Permanent Magnet Undulator (CPMU)

Proterial, SG

Hitachi Metals, JP

Delivered

Installation Q3 2025

Front end (FE)FMB-Berlin, DE

Completed

Installed

Hutches:

First optical enclosure (FOE)

Second optical enclosure (SOE)

Caratelli, FR - design and manufacture

Lycopodium & Skilcon, AU - installation

Completed

Services installed

Photon Delivery System (PDS)Axilon, DE

FDR complete

FAT in-progress

Installation Q4 2025

Nanoprobe Satellite Building (NSB)

CBD, AU - design

arete, AU - build

Completed. 

HVAC tuning underway.

 

Endstation progress

Endstation beam diagnosticsANSTO in-houseProcurement
Sample-KB table

Collab ANSTO & APS - concepts

ANSTO - design, construct, commission

Installed
Kirkpatrick-Baez (KB) mirrorsSAES Getters (CINEL), IT

Delivered

Installation Q3 2025

Delta robot

Collab ANSTO & DLS - concepts

NH Micro - precision EDM flexures

ANSTO - design, construct, commission

Commissioning
Detector gantryANSTO in-houseInstalled

SDD XRF detectors

Xspress3X Mk II

RaySpec, UK

Quantum Detectors, UK

Delivered

SAT underway

EIGER2 diffraction detectors

On-axis detector vacuum vessel

Off-axis detector industrial robot

Dectris, CH

Fantini S.p.A, IT

KUKA Robotics & CNCDesign, AU 

Delivered, SAT completed

FAT completed

Procurement completed

 

Hutch A & B

Nanoprobe and hutches teams pictured at the completion of Site Acceptance Testing.

ANSTO and Hutches teams pictured at Hutches A&B SAT
NANO Hutch A under construction

 

Nanoprobe Satellite Building (NSB) design

Design of the NSB was undertaken by CBD - Construction and Building Design Pty Ltd.

The floor plan is provided below. Special attention was paid to:

  • multi-functional user laboratory spaces
  • sample and User pathways
NSB floorplan

The building design takes into account mitigation strategies for:

  • building drift relative to the Main Experimental Hall
  • Endstation vibration susceptibility and isolation
Nanoprobe satellite building vibration environment causes blurring of images
Nanoprobe mechanical stability is achieved through careful design of the building and the beamline optics
  • Endstation thermal stabilisation
  • Passive stabilisation
Nanoprobe satellite building thermal drift causes image warping
Nanoprobe thermal stability is achieved through careful design of the building and the beamline optics.

 

Nanoprobe Satellite Building (NSB) construction

 

Aerial photograph (C. Millen - ANSTO)

Nanoprope satellite building pictured from the air

 

We are pleased to announce that arete Australia have been awarded the contract to construct the NSB!

Below are some moments in the construction to date, with most recent on top.  (If you want to view in chronological order, scroll to the bottom!)

Groundbreaking developments
7 March, 2023.  Breaking ground for the Nanoprobe Satellite Building.
From L to R: Michael James (acting Director), Andrew Peele (Group Executive), Martin de Jonge (Lead Scientist, Nanoprobe), Cameron Kewish (Senior Scientist, Nanoprobe), and Michela Semeraro (Lead Engineer, Nanoprobe).

 

Photon Delivery System (PDS)

We are pleased to announce that Axilon have been awarded the contract to construct the Nanoprobe PDS!

PDR has been reached, with all major PDS components being agreed.

Below is a table indicating major components and their locations

Nanoprobe PDS: location of major components.
ComponentAcronymlocation along
beamline [mm]
Fixed mask 1FM113,554
White beam slitsWBS14,706
Vertical focusing mirrorVFM15,852
Horizontal focusing mirrorHFM16,552
Beam imager 1BI117,433
Fixed mask 2FM218,158
FiltersFLT18,910
Double multilayer monochromatorDMM19,868
(Double crystal monochromator - deferred)(DCM)(20,953)
Beam imager 2BI221,946
Fixed mask 3FM222,321
Short transport line - FOE-SOE  
Diamond quadrant beam position monitorDBPM31,968
Quad-diode beam position monitorQBPM32,230
Secondary source apertureSSA32,630
Beam imager 3BI333,190
Monochromatic beam shutterSHT33,765
Fast vacuum valveFVV34,319
Long transport line - SOE-Endstation  

 

Nanofocusing Kirkpatrick-Baez Mirrors (Nano-KB)

Diffraction limited nanofocus simulated at 17.48 keV, incorporating metrology data from the actual mirrors fabricated by J-TEC:

Simulated diffraction limited focusing from NANO-KB including metrology data

Nano-KB system at FAT @ CINEL:

CINEL NANO-KB system at FAT

 

 

Capability Summary and Techniques

Elemental mapping

Hard X-rays (5 keV – 20 keV) give the Nanoprobe unique analytical capabilities, revealing the elemental, chemical and structural information within specimens from a diverse range of scientific fields.

The size of the X-ray focus determines the spatial resolution of the Nanoprobe instrument; the intensity of the X-ray beam determines its sensitivity - the Nanoprobe targets 60-300 nm resolution and 1e10-1e13 ph/s intensity.  The Nanoprobe beamline has been designed to enable resolution and sensitivity to be optimized for each investigation, enabling, e.g., improved elemental sensitivity at the cost of spatial resolution.

The Nanoprobe instrument will be optimized for elemental mapping using X-ray fluorescence in combination with scanning.

nanoprobe endstation

Elemental mapping using the Nanoprobe instrument.

An X-ray beam is focused onto a specimen using a KB mirror pair.  In this figure, the focused beam passes through a Maia detector, positioned to capture the maximum amount of secondary photons emitted by the specimen. 

The specimen is scanned through the beam, and at each position the Maia energy dispersive detector will be used to determine the energy of characteristic fluorescence X-rays emitted by the specimen, as well as Rayleigh and Compton scattered X-rays.

Super-resolution diffraction microscopy

In addition to elemental mapping, the Nanoprobe instrument will enable high-resolution visualization of a specimen’s phase and absorption using ptychography. An on-axis fast-framing hybrid pixel array records the X-ray intensity distribution downstream of the specimen as it is scanned through the beam. From this raw data, ptychography can build up structural images of the specimen at "super-resolution", i.e., smaller than the focused beam, anticipated down to around 15 nm. When high resolution is not required, or when the measurement conditions required for ptychography cannot be provided, differential phase contrast methods will be used to obtain at-resolution maps of phase and absorption.

 

Samples: type, preparation and presentation

  • Scan range of 3 mm * 3 mm * 3 mm with sub-10-nm addressing precision.
  • Typical specimen thickness will be below 10 µm. Thicker specimens may lose lateral imaging resolution due to projection overlay.
  • A sample preparation laboratory is adjacent to the Endstation in the NSB, which is compatible with PC-2 certification (future upgrade) but this certification will not extend to the Endstation.
  • Off-line sample pre-alignment and characterization will be available.

     

The Nanoprobe beamline will enable key techniques including:

  • Elemental mapping for most elements heavier than silicon (Si),
  • Scanning Transmission and Differential Phase Contrast,
  • Ptychography for phase and absorption contrast @ ~10-nm resolution,
  • Tomography for all contrast modes
  • DEFERRED upgrade: X-ray Absorption Near Edge Spectroscopy (XANES) will NOT be available until the DCM is installed. XANES provides chemical state analysis and mapping of elements ranging from Cr to Sr (K series), Ba to Bi (L series)

 

Future developments

In the first instance, radiation-induced specimen damage will not be mitigated.  Pathways for upgrading the system to support cryogenics are encapsulated in the instrument design.  

  • A precision rotation stage will enable tomography with most measurement modes.
  • Scanning nano-beam small- and wide angle X-ray scattering: nano-SAXS/WAXS
  • Scanning nano-beam X-ray diffraction: nano-XRD
  • An off-axis detector will enable Bragg-CDI and Bragg ptychography.

Scientific Applications

The Nanoprobe beamline will be able to address questions across a wide variety of scientific disciplines, including:

Human health and biology

First-row transition metals including manganese (Mn), iron (Fe), copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn) play key roles in biological systems, and are a co-factor in an estimated 30% of proteins.  The Nanoprobe will provide a unique ability to map the distribution of these elements with high sensitivity and organelle-level resolution within biological systems such as cells and tissues to deliver insights into a range of questions in inorganic biochemistry with applications in eg mechanisms, pathology, and treatment of neurodegenerative diseases and other diseases of aging.

Food, agriculture, and plant biology

Micronutrients such as iron (Fe), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn) and selenium (Se) are essential to human nutrition. Simultaneously, toxic elements such as arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd) and lead (Pb) can be taken up by plants and so enter the food chain.  Mapping the distributions of these elements within soils, fertilisers, root systems, stems and leaves will deliver insights into uptake, storage and biological fate of these metals and so enable improvements to the food chain with the potential to impact global food security.

Advanced materials and manufacturing

Nanomaterials technology is a key driver for manufacturing industry, and the Nanoprobe will provide a cutting-edge technique known as ptychography to provide high sensitivity imaging of larger nanoparticles at the 15 nm length scale.  In addition, the ~60 nm X-ray probe will enable studies employing fluorescence, diffraction and scattering from small volumes within a specimen.  The ability to employ both methods on a specimen within the one instrument will enable insights into nanostructure and function.

Environmental studies

Nanoscale distributions of environmental toxins are elucidated using the Nanoprobe.  Examples include

  • Distribution and speciation of toxic metals such as lead (Pb), mercury (Hg), and arsenic (As) in mine tailings and groundwater
  • Uptake pathways afforded by plants
  • Remediation pathways afforded by both plants and mineralogy
Earth Science and minerals formation

Mineralogy occurs across length-scales ranging from the nanometre to the kilometre.  Providing insight bridging from the nanoscale to the microscale, the Nanoprobe will complement the XFM beamline (itself bridging the microscale to the decimetre scale) to provide a combination of detail and context that illuminates mineralogy and thus geological processes.  Strategies for mining and exploration will be improved through studies of gold (Au), platinum (Pt), and uranium (U) bearing ore deposits, with the ability to probe chemical speciation providing key insights difficult if not impossible to obtain using other methods.

Cultural Heritage, Archaeology, and Arts

Understanding of the distribution and speciation of elements within art and artefacts can provide essential clues into origin, provenance, history, and genesis.  Examples include:

  • Chemical fingerprinting of ochres provides insights into the early Australian trading routes and so the extent of relations between aboriginal tribes.
  • Chemical speciation studies of pigments in older paintings can greatly assist understanding of painting degradation and remediation

The applications of the Nanoprobe are very broad – this reflects the both the importance of metals to life and technology and the fact that you can put just about anything under a microscope!  The unique capabilities of the Nanoprobe – exquisite elemental sensitivity, high resolution, high penetration – make it a key instrument for addressing nanoscale structure – function relations across a broad range of science.  Taken from operating international facilities, specific examples of the kinds of measurements that we aim to deliver are listed below.

Elemental mapping at high resolution
Elemental mapping nanoprobe beamline

Elemental distributions in frozen-hydrated Chlamydomonoas (green algae) measured using the Advanced Photon Source BioNanoprobe, alongside complementary ptychographic imaging.
From Deng et al, Scientific Reports (2017). 

 

Ptychography for advanced nano-manufacturing and materials science: integrated circuits

Ptychography is a computationally-intensive method that provides access to high-resolution imaging, and will be able to resolve features down towards 15 nm with the Nanoprobe beamline.

Nanoprobe science applications circuits

Ptychography of an integrated circuit fabricated with 16 nm technology. The apparent ‘hatching’ is due to these 16-nm vias and interconnects within the chip.  Brighter colours indicate higher projected electron density. 
Deng et al; Review of Scientific Instruments,90, 083701 (2019)

Elemental Mapping and Tomography
elemental mapping and tomography

Elemental tomography of a diatom at 400-nm resolution reveals distribution of elements at micro-molar concentrations.  We anticipate that such a measurement could be completed in one shift (8 hours) using the Nanoprobe.  From de Jonge et al, PNAS (2010). 

 

Mapping chemical co-ordination using XANES spectroscopy and imaging.

X-ray microprobes and nanoprobes are commonly used to perform local tests of chemical speciation (oxidation state), but the Nanoprobe will leverage world-leading expertise at the XFM beamline to deliver XANES imaging at the Nanoscale.

mapping chemical coordination

Imaging of chromium (Cr) speciation within a paint sample from van Gogh, showing alteration of Cr chemistry due to degradation. Data from the ESRF, ID21. From Monico et al, JAAS (2014). 

Technical Information and Specifications

The Nanoprobe design allows the focused intensity to be traded against focal spot size for application to a wide variety of studies.  At the highest resolution, roughly 108 ph/s will be focused into 60 nm; for measurements requiring higher intensity, roughly 1010 ph/s will be focused into 100 nm; highest sensitivity will focus roughly 1011 ph/s into 300 nm.

Several design features maintain the focused intensity on the Nanoprobe beamline, including:

  • Use of a double multilayer monochromator (DMM) to transport the entirety of the undulator harmonic to the endstation at around 1% bandpass.
  • Horizontal and vertical focusing to a Secondary Source Aperture (SSA) enables flux tuning with high dynamic range. This configuration also improves vibration resilience of the beamline transport.
  • Kirkpatrick-Baez mirrors with high focusing efficiency and achromaticity will be used in the endstation.

Technical Specifications

View Nanoprobe Technical Specifications
Nanoprobe technology selections and anticipated performance.
FunctionSpecificDetails
Insertion Device SourceCPMU
  • Length - 3 m
  • Period - 18 mm
  • Kmax ~ 1.8
MonochromationDMM
  • Broad-band for mapping sensitivity
  • Energy range 5 - 20 keV
  • DE/E ~ 1x10-2
Nanofocusing opticsK-B mirrors
  • Diffraction-limited resolution: 60 nm @ 10 keV
  • N.A.: 1.05 mrad (symmetical in XY)
  • Grazing incidence angle: 3 mrad
  • 100% reflectivity cut-off energy: 17 keV
  • 50% reflectivity cut-off energy: 22 keV
Scanning stages

Delta robot XYZ

Smaract rotation

Air-bearing granite Z 

  • Scanning: XYZ 3x3x3 mm range, sub-10-nm precision
  • Positioning axis: θ, 360 deg range.
  • Defocus axis: Z, 50 mm range, ~100 nm precision
  • Minimum dwell ~ 1 ms / pixel transit
Fluorescence detectorsSilicon drift diodes (SDD)
  • >1 Mcps overall count rate
  • < 200 eV energy resolution (Mn Kα) at 1 Mcps rate
  • Orthogonal and backscatter geometry
On-axis detector

Hybrid pixel array

EIGER2 X 4M

  • Photon counting detector
  • 2 kHz 16-bit frame rate (4.5 kHz in 8-bit mode)
  • 75 µm pixels
  • In-vacuum detector
  • Detector distance remotely adjustable from 1–7 m
Off-axis detector

Hybrid pixel array

EIGER2 X 1M

  • As-above detector performance, in-vacuum capable
  • Industrial robot [r,theta,phi]: r up to 3-5 m depending on angle

Beamline status & schedule

View Beamline status
DateComponent / Stage
2018 AugustNANO - Preliminary design commences
2020 AprilNANO - Investment Case (IC) endorsed
2020 JuneNANO - Conceptual Design Report
2020 JulyNANO - NSB conceptual design commences
2021NANO - Final Design Report
2021 MayNSB design contract awarded (CBD)
2022 JanuaryHutches contract awarded (Caratelli)
2022 AprilPDS contract awarded (Axilon)
2022 JuneCPMU contract awarded (Hitachi)
2022 DecemberNSB construction contract awarded (arete)
2023 JanuaryKB mirror contract awarded to (Cinel)
2023 MarchPDS PDR (Axilon)
2024 AprilNano KB Mirror system FAT @ CINEL
2024 JuneNano KB Mirror optics received (JTEC)
2024 JulyNSB practical completion achieved (arete)
(2025 August)PDS FAT @ AXILON
(2025)PDS Delivery and Installation: Cold Commissioning commences
(2026)Cold commissioning
(2026 June)First Light to Endstation: Hot Commissioning commences
(2026 September)"Day 1" First Users
(2027 September)"Day 365" In-house commissioning transitions to full-time User operation

Nanoprobe Schedule. Estimated overall COVID-19 delay: 9-months

Beamline layout

nanoprobe detailed design layout

 

Staff

  • Mr Nader Afshar – Lead Controls Engineer
  • Mr John Athanasakis – Senior Controls Engineer
  • Mr Praneel Chugh Controls Engineer
  • Dr Evan Constable Scientist
  • Dr Martin de Jonge – Lead Scientist
  • Mr Jim Divitcos Design Engineer
  • Dr Cameron M. KewishSenior Scientist
  • Mr Craig MillenGroup Leader, Electrical Technicians
  • Mr Callan Morey Senior Mechanical Engineer
  • Mr Saber Mostafavian – Lead Engineer (2024-)
  • Dr Letizia Sammut Senior Scientific Software Engineer
  • Ms Michela Semeraro – Lead Engineer (2020-2024)
  • Dr Prithi Tissa – Project Manager
  • Mr Steve Truban – IT Systems Engineer
  • Mr Jason Wirthensohn – Senior Mechanical Technician

     

Beamline Advisory Panel

  • Prof. Hugh Harris [Chair] – University of Adelaide
  • Prof. Brian Abbey – La Trobe University
  • Dr Louise Fisher – CSIRO
  • Prof David Paganin – Monash University
  • Dr Fatima Eftekhari [Retired] – Melbourne Centre for Nanofabrication
  • Assoc Prof Mark Hackett – Curtin University
  • Dr Alessandra Gianoncelli [International Advisor] – Sincrotrone Elettra, Italy
  • Prof Stefan Vogt [International Design Advisor] – Argonne National Laboratory, USA

Contact

[email protected]