Molecular and nanostructured peculiarities of biological tissues in various functional states

Analyzing structural peculiarities of biological polymers at the molecular and nanosized scales (1–1000 Å) provides new possibilities to study their functioning. Revolutionary concepts in the study of nanostructured systems are being stimulated by revolutionary instrumentation related to the development of structural methods based on the use of synchrotron radiation, making it possible to investigate the structural dynamics of a functioning biological object. The first experimental study of biological tissues using synchrotron radiation was performed at VEPP-3 storage ring, and measurements are now being performed at the National Research Center Kurchatov Institute. In this brief review we describe the use of synchrotron radiation in biology and medicine in (i) fundamental programs of structural biology and (ii) medical programs.     

Experiments on the physics of charged particle beams at the VEPP-4M electron-positron collider

The VEPP-4M accelerator facility with a universal KEDR detector is designed to conduct experiments with colliding electron-positron beams. High-energy physics, nuclear physics, and studies using synchrotron radiation are the main directions of research with this facility. In addition, experiments on poorly explored issues in the physics of beams in the electron-positron storage ring and methodological studies to prepare an experiment aimed at testing corollaries of the CPT theorem for an electron and a positron are regularly conducted at the VEPP-4 facility. A number of works performed in recent years are described: studies to increase the accuracy of comparing the electron and positron spin precession frequencies by the resonant depolarization method; measurements of the count rate of Touschek electrons as a function of the beam energy in a wide range; comparison of the methods for measuring the beam energy spread; a study of the electron beam dynamics when a nonlinear betatron resonance is crossed.     

Equipment for soft X-Ray lithography on the VEPP-4M

An X-ray scanner for X-ray mask lithography is described. It is mounted onto the synchrotron radiation (SR) beamline of the VEPP-4M storage ring. The main advantage of this scanner is the possibility of varying the SR spectral range within wide limits and its fine tuning for solving specific technical tasks by changing the working energy of the VEPP-4M and using corresponding filters, which is illustrated by tables and plots of the calculated spectra. Calculated estimates of the lithographic resolution of lithographic complex, exposure times for various types of X-ray masks, and thicknesses of their masking layers providing the required level of X-ray mask contrast are given.     

New measurement of the ϒ-meson mass

The method of resonance depolarization has been used for the absolute energy calibration of storage ring VEPP-4. The beam polarization was measured by the up-down asymmetry of the synchrotron radiation back-scattered on the colliding beam. By scanning the ? resonance with the MD-1 detector, we obtained a massM=9460.59 ±0.12 MeV.     

X-ray stations based on cylindrical zoom lenses for nanostructural investigations using synchrotron radiation

The main results of the development of X-ray stations are presented. These stations are intended to solve problems concerning the structural biology of tissues at a high time resolution with the help of synchrotron radiation (SR) generated by the VEPP-3 storage ring (Siberian center of SR, Novosibirsk) and the Siberia-2 storage ring (National Research Centre Kurchatov Institute and the centre of nano-, bio-, information, and cognitive sciences, Moscow). The issues of selecting the optical scheme and basic parameters of X-ray optical systems are discussed. Photographs of the original designs of the constructed equipment are given. A modular approach to designing experimental facilities based on self-contained units and methods of focusing a monochromatic SR beam in the required spectral range have been developed. The technique of X-ray beam focusing by means of optical zoom lenses has been implemented. Experimental results that illustrate the possibilities of the SR-beamline hardware used for X-ray diffraction investigation of different biological objects with the help of different recording systems are presented.     

High vacuum ionization chamber with high spatial resolution for monitoring synchrotron radiation beams

The possibility of using an ionization chamber with a cutting collectorin vacuum (10⁻⁴–10⁻⁵ Pa) for online monitoring of the position of a synchrotron radiation (SR) beam is studied experimentally The possibility of measuring the vertical position of the SR beam with a precision of up to several micrometers is demonstrated in the high vacuum conditions of an open channel in the VEPP-4M storage ring (in the absence of a beryllium window). Two such ionization chambers operating synchronously and situated one after another can serve as a basis for the SR beam stabilization system in neighboring channels.     

Far-infrared spectroscopy by synchrotron radiation at the UVSOR Facility

At the UVSOR Facility, Institute for Molecular Science, the practical use of the synchrotron radiation as a far-infrared light source has started. A spectroscopic system has been constructed at the beam line BL6A1 of UVSOR storage ring, which covers the wavenumber region from 5 to 250 cm^–1. The cross sectional diameter of the light beam at the sample position is as small as 3 mm with the angular divergence of about 100 mrad. The system has been made mainly for the transmission and reflection measurements of small samples with small angular divergence by the use of the high brightness of the synchrotron radiation. Examples of observed transmission and reflectivity spectra are shown.     

Current Status and Planned Upgrades of the VEPP-5 Injection Complex

Physics of Particles and Nuclei Letters - The VEPP-5 injection complex, consisting of two linacs and a damping storage ring, delivers electron and positron beams to the VEPP-4M and VEPP-2000...     

The VEPP-2000 electron-positron collider: First experiments

In 2007, at the Institute of Nuclear Physics (Novosibirsk), the construction of the VEPP-2000 electron-positron collider was completed. The first electron beam was injected into the accelerator structure with turned-off solenoids of the final focus. This mode was used to tune all subsystems of the facility and to train the vacuum chamber using synchrotron radiation at electron currents of up to 150 mA. The VEPP-2000 structure with small beta functions and partially turned-on solenoids was used for the first testing of the “round beams” scheme at an energy of 508 MeV. Beam-beam effects were studied in strong-weak and strong-strong modes. Measurements of the beam sizes in both cases showed a dependence corresponding to model predictions for round colliding beams. Using a modernized SND (spherical neutral detector), the first energy calibration of the VEPP-2000 collider was performed by measuring the excitation curve of the phimeson resonance; the phi-meson mass is known with high accuracy from previous experiments at VEEP-2M. In October 2009, a KMD-3 (cryogenic magnetic detector) was installed at the VEPP-2000 facility, and the physics program with both the SND and LMD-3 particle detectors was started in the energy range of 1–1.9 GeV. This first experimental season was completed in summer 2010 with precision energy calibration by resonant depolarization.     

Memorable Years for Synchrotron Radiation at the Institute of Nuclear Physics in Novosibirsk

In the early 1970s, the Institute of Nuclear Physics (INP) in Novosibirsk was a unique place in the world of accelerator physics. There were three operational electron-positron storage rings at the institution. All together, they covered beam operational energies from 200 MeV up to 2.2 GeV. It was not a big surprise for the developers of these state-of-the-art machines when the first users of synchrotron radiation showed up at the doorsteps of the Institute of Nuclear Physics, eager to take advantage of such unique radiation sources. And how very unique they were! Compared with several already relatively well-established operational synchrotrons around the world, such as DESY in Hamburg, NINA in Darsbury, and three synchrotrons in the Soviet Union—one at the Physical Institute in Pakhra, another at the Tomsk Polytechnical Institute, and a third at the Erevan Physical Institute—the storage ring sources provided much more stable and brighter radiation beams. Several storage rings built at that time in locations such as Japan, the US, and France were also on the verge of becoming available for synchrotron radiation users.     

Scanning X-ray fluorescence microanalysis of annual layers in samples of Lake Shira bottom sediments

The interannual and interseasonal variations in the trace element composition of annual layers in bottom sediments of Lake Shira (Khakassia) are studied by means of X-ray scanning microanalysis with synchrotron radiation on the VEPP-3 (Novosibirsk) and BESSY-II (Berlin) storage rings. The relationship between sediment composition and weather and climatic conditions is established. The possibility of paleoclimatic reconstructions with annual temporal resolution is demonstrated.     

Disintegration of hydrogen phases in palladium and titanium during irradiation with a synchrotron radiation bunch in the X-ray spectral region

Data from measurements of the disintegration kinetics of hydrogen phases in palladium and titanium during annealing and irradiation with a synchrotron radiation bunch in the X-ray spectral region on the VEPP-3 LIGA Technology station are presented. The hydride phases in palladium and titanium remain stable at sample temperatures of 60°C and irradiation doses of up to 3000 J cm^?3 during irradiation with a synchrotron radiation bunch and start to decompose during sample heating to a temperature of 90–100°C.     

Lifetime and time-resolved fluorescence measurements with aco synchrotron radiation

For the first time storage ring synchrotron radiation has been used as a repetitive source for time spectroscopy. Very fast fluorescence decays (shorter than 1 nsec) have been measured with an accuracy of the order of 10%, by the Single Photon Counting technique. Also fast protolytic reactions occuring in the excited state of 2-naphthol and fluorescein have been investigated by the Delayed Coincidence technique (time-resolved fluorescence). Storage ring synchrotron radiation characteristics are compared with those of the nanosecond flash lamps, conventionally used for this kind of measurements.     

IKNO,a user facility for coherent terahertz and UV synchrotron radiation

IKNO (Innovation and KNOwledge) is a proposal for a multi‐user facility based on an electron storage ring optimized for the generation of coherent synchrotron radiation (CSR) in the terahertz frequency range, and of broadband incoherent synchrotron radiation ranging from the IR to the VUV. IKNO can be operated in an ultra‐stable CSR mode with photon flux in the terahertz frequency region up to nine orders of magnitude higher than in existing third‐generation light sources. Simultaneously to the CSR operation, broadband incoherent synchrotron radiation up to VUV frequencies is available at the beamline ports. The main characteristics of the IKNO storage and its performance in terms of CSR and incoherent synchrotron radiation are described in this paper. The proposed location for the infrastructure facility is Sardinia, Italy.     

Measurement of R at VEPP-2000

The new e+e-storage ring,VEPP-2000,is being commissioned at Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics,Novosibirsk.Measurement of the total cross section e+e-→hadrons in the whole VEPP-2000 energy range is one of the main goals of the new experiments.We discuss the goals of the measurement and the expected systematic errors.     

X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) for KCl

The cluster calculations of K and L_2,3 edge XANES of K and Cl in KCl within the multiple scattering theory formalism using nonlocal HF potentials with abd without consideration of core hole field were performed. For K spectra the influence of the core hole potential is rather weak and the results are similar to those obtained with Xα potentials. For L_2,3 spectra, particularly for that of K⁺, core hole field leads to a radical redistribution of oscillator strength caused mainly by the spatial rearrangement of d like states. Calculated XANES curves show good over-all agreement with the experimental spectra (the L_2,3 absorption of K⁺ in KCl was measured using the synchrotron radiation of the USSR Academy of Sciences storage ring VEPP-2M in Novosibirsk).     

PETRA IV Workshop on Research with High-Energy X-rays at Ultra-Low Emittance Sources

Recent advances in storage ring technology pioneered by MAX IV (Sweden) allow synchrotron radiation sources to achieve significantly smaller emittances than those currently in operation. This new, multi-bend achromat technology can thus boost spectral brightness, enabling unprecedented experimental possibilities. The high-energy synchrotron radiation facilities ESRF (France), SPring-8 (Japan), and APS (USA) have settled upgrade plans to improve their storage ring emittance by up to two orders of magnitude at 6 GeV electron energy. PETRA III at DESY has the largest circumference with 2.3 km. As the emittance scales favorably with the storage ring size, an upgrade of PETRA III offers the unique potential to reach a diffraction limit up to X-ray energies of 10 keV. Operating at 6 GeV with an emittance of 10 pmrad, this PETRA IV facility would pave the way for new experimental opportunities, especially for those using high photon energies.     

Effect of coherent synchrotron oscillations on the spectrum of microwave radiation of electrons in storage ring

The paper studies the characteristics of the microwave radiation of relativistic electrons in a storage ring given coherent synchrotron oscillations of the particles in the beam. Within the frame work of the collective phase motion model constructed, it is shown that the band of the generated harmonics is broadened considerably and the power of the coherent losses exceeds the analogous characteristics of the radiation of a beam of particles moving independently.Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Fizika, No. 5, pp. 17–19, May, 1978.     

DICSI station at KCSR and NT: Determination of optimal requirements to the formation of an SR beam using cylindrical x-ray optical zoom lenses

To modernize the DICSI station, new hardware and software have been created according to the conditions of the operating storage ring “Sibir’-2” beam channel. The recording system has been successfully tested on the operating channel of the storage ring VEPP-3 (Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk) using the time-resolved “diffraction cinema” technique in studying real biological objects in the static and dynamic modes of data accumulation. At the DICSI station, structural changes in medical and biological objects are permanently investigated. The specific structure dimensions of these objects are in the nanometric range.     

Synchrotron radiation of crystallized beams

We study the modifications of synchrotron radiation of charges in a storage ring as they are cooled. The pair correlation lengths between the charges are manifest in the synchrotron radiation and coherence effects exist for wavelengths longer than the coherence lengths between the charges. Therefore, the synchrotron radiation can be used as a diagnostic tool to determine the state (gas, liquid, crystal) of the charged plasma in the storage ring. We show also that the total power of the synchrotron radiation is significantly reduced for crystallized beams, both coasting and bunched. This opens the possibility of accelerating particles to ultrarelativistic energies using small-sized cyclic accelerators.