BEAMLINE

0. Set the Entrance slit and Exit slit opening with the MAIN PANEL.VI (or for expert users from Motor Control.VI) to set the required Energy Resolution.
Press =>. Select the Element (Entrance Slit), the Action (Opening). Set the value (absolute) between 10 and 50 and press MOVE. Select the Element (Exit Slit), the Action (Opening). Set the value (absolute) between 10 and 50 and press MOVE.

1. XPS onoff.VI has to be ON. (Select ON, Press inside the circle until a point appears, Press=>). Then Press OK in the Popup window and wait until the green buttom gets red).

2. Switch OFF the Remote PreAmp of IS (if it was connected)

3. Disconnect the Remote PreAmp of IS from the BNC of the manipulator.

4. Connect the Ground cable to the BNC of the manipulator in order to ground the sample.

Note that for XPS the Keithley is not a good ground. Therefore also in this case disconnect the Remote PreAmp from the BNC, after having pressed OFF (on the main panel under the blue light, the blue light will get off) and connect a ground cable to the BNC.

5. Counter Setting.VI. Check that only I0 is selected (ON) in the Counter Setting.VI (while XPS, IS and IREL must be OFF).

Note: all the scanning VI (Scan energy, scan motor, scan XPS, scan resonant XPS,..) have to be STOPPED before using Counter setting.VI

x=23.2; y=26.7; z=9.45; theta=180° -NORMAL INCIDENCE (SG3 grating)

x=25.9; y=29.72; z=9.45; theta=240° -NORMAL EMISSION (SG3 grating)

7.Set Energy and Undulator.VI. Use First harmonic when possible (at 2.0 GeV up to about 720 eV, at 2.4 GeV up to about 800-900 eV) or third harmonic for higher energies.

8.Scan XPS 2008.VI. Make a wide scan. Pass Energy can be selected from 5 to 90 eV. Typical time is 1000 (1 sec per point). The delta will be automatically chosen by the program (the value closest to the step set by the user compatible with the selected pass energy). Minimum Kinetic energy is 30 eV (default operation mode). On special request the operational mode of the analyser can be changed (by changing the CAEN connections-hardware) to measure kinetic energies between 0 eV and 100 eV (Low Energy Mode).

9.XPS Survey.VI. Optimize the Y and or change the angle. Set maximum kinetic energy, pass energy and time=500 to select a core level that you want to follow, the VI will show you in real time a window with the core level (the energy window will be proportional to the pass energy). For flat samples Y is around 25. You can then rotate to normal emission (theta=240°) while following the chosen core level count rate. You will need to adjust X and Y if the sample is not mounted at the horizontal center of the sample holder).

2) Switch on the LEED. Set Operate. Press ON on the filament. Wait until it reaches the operating current.

3) Press ON on the SCREEN Hi Voltage. Wait until it reaches the operating current.

4) If you want to use the remote control for the energy press save/remote.

5) When you finish switch OFF the screen, then switch OFF the filament, then press down the switch off button on the "Setting" panel for 2-3 second until on the screen the message "you can switch off the LEED" appears. Switch off the power switch.

6)DANGER: Move the y to lower values, move the LEED backwards,then move the angle, always monitoring the sample holder distance from the CF63 lateral window in front of the gate valve.

LEED Degassing Procedure

Before using the LEED, ask the beamline scientist if the instrument was degassed after the last bake out.

Check that the 3 connectors are plugged on the instrument.

To degass the LEED. The pressure in the main chamber has to be in the 10^-10 mbar. Ask the beamline scientist for assistance. If you already know the instrument: Set the controller on Programming (Prog.) instead of Operating. Set the filament to 1 A and press on. Wait until it reaches 1 A, then increase the filament by 0.2 A every 5 minutes, until you reach the operating current (2.6A), while the pressure remains below 5x10^-9 mbar. Wait for 1-2 hours, until the filamenet is completely degassed.

The Shutter is closed and it cannot be opened

You can check the Status of the FE valves here (BL BACH Monitor.VI):
or here: BACH BCS. Note that the valves are green when closed, red when open.

a) Try opening FE by the MainPanel.VI or the FE openclose.VI (how)..

b) Check if there is beam at the following link Machine Status: http://www.elettra.trieste.it/accelerator/machine_status.php

c) Check if the water fluxes of SM1, SM2, Entrance Slit at the very end of the beamline, after the monochromator, on the left are ok. If they are too low, adjust the levels (ask asap to your local contact to show you the position of these water gauges and flux regulator!).

In case the water flux is low, the corresponding element in the BACH BCS will be RED (Sph.Mirr.1,Sph.Mirr.2, Entr. Slit). If in normal operation they are GREEN.
See also: http://www.tasc.infm.it/research/bach/external.php#Troubleshooting

d) Check that all BL valves are open (in particular the first valve close to the front end)

e) Check the pressure of Sph.Mirr.1. The gauge is not working well and from time to time it needs to be restarted. Call the beamline scientists.

f) Check that the Gamma Monitor and that FE Hutch has been searched: BACS Supervisor Panel (Front-end hutch status,Stopper FE status,Gamma monitor,Ring shutter opening)

The FE is open, but there is no signal

      a) Check if there is beam at the following link Machine Status.

      b)Check that all BL valves are open (from the MainPanel.vi, press BL valves and then press the arrow to read the status)

      c)Check that the Machine shutter and the Machine valve are open (RED) (link: BACH BCS). These two elements are not controllable by the user. If you find them close you have to call the control room (8262 or 8263) to open them.

      d)Check that the Keithley (e.g. 25, reading Io) have been switched on using the VI Keithely Initialize 6430 inside the folder Counters. The first time initialise it at 10-6 (check first that entrance and exit slits are less than 50 micron). Then read Io using Counter read All.VI and select the more appropriate scale.

Io or Is are very noisy.

      Try to fix the preamplifier to the BNC(MHV) of the amnipulator using some aluminum foil in order to ensure a good electrical contact between the BNC of the manipulator and the preamp. Sometimes the weigh of the preamplifier losens the contact inside the MHV and small mechanical vibrations create electric noise. If this is not eough contact the BL scientist.

      Try to change the scale of the keithley. E.g. If you measure 3x10-9, set the scale to 10-8.

It is not possible to raise the energy above 0.6 keV in the Sputtering Power Controller.

RECOVER FROM A POWER CUT

If there is a programmed powercut:

Heideneim controller switched off (power failure).

Seiko seiki STP300/400 controller (e.g. prep chamber) needs to be tuned (power failure).

The Monochromator does not move and does not read correctly.

In this case always contact first the bamline staff. Only in case you are authorized by the beamline staff, you can perform the following operations:

For some reason, during the experiments, did you open the 082-MONO browser window located on the Firefox bookmark toolbar? CLOSE IT!!!It is important that this window is not open during energy control and energy scans. Keeping this window open can cause serious interferences during the operation of the monochromator. In this case, closing the window browser can already solve the problems.

PROCEDURE FOR THE RESTART:
      a) STOP all the running VIs .
      b) CHECK that all the VIs have been stopped by monitoring the MONO Grating Number.VI. If you see that the arrow is white, it is OK. If the arrow appears broken, check again, there is one VI still running.
      c) CLICK on the FIREFOX internet browser bookmark horizontal toolbar to the link to MONO082 (from any computer of the beamline).
The link is http://192.168.203.8:8080/
First click on the MONITORING page. If this page takes a lot of time to be loaded and at the end all the paraeters are zero and you read TIME OUT, then this means that you have to restart the MONO. Go back to the previous page  http://192.168.203.8:8080/
Here you will find a web ink to RESTART the software of the MONO. Click. Confirm that you want restart. Wait until the operation is done (90 seconds).
      d) CLOSE!! the MONO082 browser window. This is very important because keeping this window open can cause  problems during the operation of the monochromator!
      e) Use ENERGY CONTROL.VI to read the energy. If the reading is ok the operation has been successful. You can try to move the energy by some eV to have a cnfirmation that the monochromator software now works again.

Problem with the BCS.

      If it is impossible to communicate with the BCS, the BCS might need to be restarted or rebooted.
If the WEB is not working, do not reboot the BCS since the problem may be different! Always contact the local contact of the beamline first. If you are sure that the problem is really due to the BCS system call one of the person of the Software Group (Turcinovich, Billè, Chenda, Borghes, Pugliese):
      A list of the person of the Elettra Software Group which is available during the weekends (REPERIBILI) can be found at this link: http://elog/NewElogBook/logbook/rep.asp.
For the reboot (ONLY FOR AUTHORIZED PEOPLE): read this PDF document: BCS RESTART. For BACH: stop082, start082, reboot082
AFTER the reboot it is necessary to run the following VIs:
1) MONO GRATING NUMBER. VI: select the grating
2) RESTORE MOTOR SPEED
3) MOTOR READ ALL (press RESTORE in case you get an error)
4) MONO HOME. VI

BCS not working. Beamline valves cannot be closed

LabView is in Edit mode (it is not possible to write the number inside the VI)

      Click TAB some times untile the arrow symbol for the cursor appears again

The PC asks for a username and a password

      For the Acquisition PC, the username and password are written on the small paper fixed on the black case of the PC tower
      For the Analysis PC the username and password are written on a tape on top of the monitor

Overwrite or restore? An Error Message pops up

An Error Message pops up on the monitor of the Data Acquisitin PC, asking if you want to overwrite or restore. Even if the default choice is overwrite, 99.9% of the times it is better to press RESTORE, especially when the error message is about the ENTRANCE/EXIT SLIT OPENING positions.
In case of doubts, always press RESTORE!!!

 1) The Beamline Control system is in time out and reads encoder=0. So, since encoder=0 means a different user unit value than the last value which was set, this erro message appears. It is the case when the user was NOT moving the SLIT OPENING or anything, but only reading its value or the user was doing an XPS or energy scan. Typically the two values (saved value and read value which appear in the error message) are very different (e.g. 30 and 50 for the entrance slit opening). Always press RESTORE in this case. If, by mistake, you have pressed OVERWRITE, contact asap the beamline scientist in order to restore the old values of the user units, otherwise you will be working with wrond settings.

2)In a very few cases, the typical case is when the users moves the Entrance slit "Y" position (NOT the opening!) to switch the undulator, it is necessary to press OVERWRITE.

This happens when the user is moving a motor (e.g. the Y), the motor does not reach the final position, but one step before. So the position read using the encoder is the one corresponding to the last step of the motor, but not the position that the motor was supposed to reach. In this case the two values (saved value and read value which appear in the error message) are very close (e.g. if you were moving the Y from +117.5 to -4.2, the error message says that the saved value is -4.6 and the read vale is -4.2). In this case, press OVERWRITE. Then READ again. The error message will likely appear again and then press again OVERWRITE.

 3)(NOT FOR USERS) ONLY when the beamline scientist is switching the BRANCHLINE : In this case the rigth choice should be pressing OVERWRITE. However read the paragraph on HOW to SWITCH the branchline first.

The Acquisition PC or LABVIEW has to be restarted

      Always contact the local contact of the beamline first.
      You need to log (username and password are written on the PC (either on the monitor or on the tower case).
      Then in the desktop you will find a ling to the Manager.VI For Users or to a Folder named "User BACH Commands". Inside you will find all the VIs that you need to start again inside the SUBFOLODERS. The MAINPANEL.VI is on the desktop.
      MAINPANEL.VI in the desktop (runt it, then (1) select again the right grating, (2) in Counter Settings set again the channels you were using, the default reads only Io)
      MONOCHROMATOR folder: MonoGratingNumber.VI (select the right grating and press the arrow to run the VI) and SetEnergyandUndulator.VI;
      ANALYSER folder: XPSOnOff_Users (the analyser will be in the same status ON or OFF it was before the restart), XPSsurvey;XPS resolution.VI
      SCANNING folder: scanXPS2008.VI, scanEnergyGalil TEST.VI (note: the first time the path that you read is wrong, but as soon as you start a scanning with the right parameters, the VI will automatically save the data in the last used folder, with a progressive number, so there is no need to write manually the path. Eventually you can write manually the path of the data folder if you want to recall the scanning parameters of some previous scans)

      Other useful VIs (in case the MainPanel VI gives problems) can be:
MOTORS folder: MotorControl ;
COUNTERS folder: CounterSettings.VI (set the counters you were using (Io, Is or XPS) to be ON or OFF and run the VI)
FRONTEND folder: FEopenclse;
BEAMLINE folder: BLopenclose;
SCANNING folder: ScanMotor;
MONOCHROMATOR folder: EnergyControlGalil;
COUNTERS: KeithleyInitialise6430, CounterSettings, CounterReadAll...


      !!!VERY VERY IMPORTANT!!!!! After the restart of the PC IT IS NECESSARY to select again the grating of the MONOCHROMATOR. Use the MonoGratingNumber.VI: you will find that the option EMPTY is selected. Insted select the last grating you were using and then press the arrow (play the VI).
    *

      !!!VERY VERY IMPORTANT!!!!!After the restart of the PC IT IS NECESSARY to select again the right parameters in SetEnergyandUndulator (2.0 or 2.4 GeV, Linear Horizontal, First Harmonic, Grating..), because the default values can be different!
      NOTE: In the scanning VI it will be necessary to insert manually the parameters (initial, final, step,..). Once you have measured again the scan, you will be again able to recal the old files and parameters.

IGOR PROCEDURES:

The Igor procedure files to plot BACH data (the yellow panel) are installed on the acquisition PC of the beamline. If Igor or the PC crashes, it is possible to recover the yellow panel by doing the following:
1. Open IgorPro
2. Data-->Load Waves-->Load BACH_BCS (..the yellow panel will pop up)
3. Browse the folder by clicking on Data folder

The Energy or Motor scan are slow and I0 reads 0 every 2 or 3 points

The regions of the ScanEnergy.VI or ScanResonantXPS.VI or other macros have to be deleted

How to make the tuning adjustment of the STP300/400 SEIKO SEIKI PUMP to controller

Download procedure