A rewarding visit as a guest researcher
Professor Adam Hitchcock, McMaster University, Canada is one of the most renown and experienced researchers in x-ray adsorption microscopy and especially soft X-ray transmission microscopy (STXM). For two months in 2021 he visited Lund to support the Softimax beamline in its startup phase, educate advanced and potential synchrotron users in STXM and ptychography and to help developing methodologies, instrumentation, data and data treatment approaches.
“ My visit was a real pleasure. I thank LINXS and BECC for the support of my visit. I also thank Karina Thånell and all the SoftiMax team for their friendship and great teamwork”, says Adam Hitchcock.
LINXS seminar on STXM
For the LINXS community, Professor Hitchcock held a seminar in October on the subject of “Chemically sensitive imaging with synchrotron based soft X-ray STXM and ptychography”.
The principles of STXM and ptychography were presented, with an emphasis on spectromicroscopy. STXM, Soft X-ray scanning transmission microscopy is a powerful synchrotron-based tool for nanoscale materials analysis. Ptychography is a computational method of microscopic imaging. Quantitative 3D imaging (tomography) at multiple photon energies can be performed with STXM and ptychography. Application areas are e.g. in biosciences (magnetotactic bacteria), energy materials (fuel cells, CO2 reduction catalysts) and in situ electrochemical studies.
Excellent performance
The goal of his visit was an expert commissioning of a microscope at MAX IV and also to connect with communities in Sweden and the Nordics.
“The progress in the expert commissioning of the STXM was steady and rewarding. In the last weeks in November, the stability and outstanding performance of the ring, beamline and microscopy were abundantly demonstrated, says Adam Hitchcock and continues. “I had intentionally brought samples that present specific challenges to getting good data, due to some combination of spatial resolution, chemical/ spectroscopic sensitivity, and radiation sensitivity”.
The system performed excellently on all the samples – in some cases providing data that was better than what was published. The SoftiMax STXM is already one of the best in the world. With further development of the capabilities, there is every reason to believe it will be the best in the world and maintain that position for quite some time.
Returning in 2022
In addition to his work at Max IV and giving talks to various communities of researchers in Denmark, Finland and Sweden, Adam Hitchcock and his wife had some time to explore Lund and Skåne:
“A very enjoyable and different experience was a mushroom picking outing with the biology group, who are planning to use microscopy at MAX IV. I learned a lot about why it is important to understand how fungi interact with the soil and how they capture carbon. It was fascinating to see how everyone engaged in dissecting fungi and discussing their findings”.
The visit in 2021 was during the period when the days got shorter and darker. In the plans for 2022 is a visit in the brighter season from April to June and more scheduled beamtime at MAX IV.
“There are many capabilities that still need to be developed, and I am sure there are well thought out plans for the sequence in which to tackle these. I hope to be able to contribute to these developments in the future. I am planning a 5-8 week visit to Max IV in spring. I also look forward to seeing how LINXS is finding its way and hope to see people in person at the location again”, concludes Adam Hitchcock.