Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics (BINP) SB RAS started the experimental station for educational and technological work with synchrotron radiation (SR) on VEPP-4, a multipurpose storage ring. The main purpose of the new facility is to train scientific and engineering personnel to work with SR at research organizations, universities and industry. These include the specialists who will work in the Shared Research Center "Siberian Synchrotron and Terahertz Radiation Centre"(SRC "SKIF") and other synchrotron centers, as well as future potential users who represent various fields of science. The first experiments at the new station were attended by the students of NSU Department of Physics (DP) and NSTU NETI Department of Radio-Electronics (DRE).
The issue of creating a special training facility was first raised at the Shared Research Center "Siberian Synchrotron and Terahertz Radiation Centre" two years ago. There has always been the need to train personnel for the work with synchrotron radiation at BINP, but the beginning of the SRC "SKIF" project and the start of specialists training programs majoring in synchrotron radiation at NSU and NSTU NETI draw attention to the urgent issue of students internship. As a result, a special experimental station, "Technological station for SR " (TSSR) was created at the SR output on the VEPP-4. It is made of a set of relatively standard components of any SR station: movable blades, monochromator crystals, detectors, etc. Assembling and adjusting these elements students will be able to get a clear idea of the entire system principles and gain the real experience of preparing and conducting experiments with SR. In addition to the training function, the station will also serve as a stand for checking and testing new equipment, especially X-ray detectors, which are also manufactured at BINP. The station is designed for students with different majors and levels of training: 2-4 year students of NSU DP (Physical basis of experiments), Department of Natural Sciences NSU (SR interaction with the matter), NSTU NETI students (Engineering and designing support of experiments) as well as NSU postgraduate students of the new interdisciplinary Master's Program who will specifically learn how to prepare samples for experiments and data processing as the future staff of the station. "One needs to assemble a station to understanding how it functions. Any SR station represents a set of modules: kind of LEGO for adults; changing components, placing them in different grouping, one can better understand the whole mechanism," says Boris Goldenberg, PhD, Senior Researcher of BINP SB RAS, Project manager of SRC "SKIF". "Therefore, the first four of our students who prepared their course and qualification papers last spring did not work at the finished station, but took an active part in its assembly and the first experiments, saw the problems that arose and helped to find their solutions." Starting from the next academic year, the station will be used as a base for laboratory, course and qualification works of NSU and NSTU NETI students. Artem Barakhtayev, Yuri Khomyakov (NSU, DP, 2 year, doing course work): "We got a unique experience of working with SR, learned the necessary basics of designing such stations, saw how research is carried out. In the process, we realized that it is very important for future users of SR stations to get such experience before starting to work with real installations." Maria Rybachek (NSTU, DRE, 4 year, Bachelor's Degree qualification work): "The process of launching the station was interesting and clear. In my opinion, the work on the station under construction is much more interesting than on the finished one, because various real tasks appear during construction and you need to come up with a solution that is suitable for this case. We worked as a team, and each participant could do something specific, help others or ask them for help. Participating in creation and construction of the station gives a lot of experience in solving practical problems." SRC "SKIF" project in Novosibirsk is implemented in accordance with the President of the Russian Federation instructions, the decree of the President of the Russian Federation of 25.07.2019 No. 356 and is the flagship program of Novosibirsk scientific center development, known as "Akademgorodok 2.0". In future, Siberian synchrotron radiation source of "4+" generation will be a part of the national network infrastructure of synchrotron and neutron research. SRC "SKIF" is a center of collective use which will include not only the accelerator complex, but also a developed user infrastructure: the experimental station and laboratory facilities. The launch of the first phase of the project is scheduled for 2024, the estimated cost is 37.1 billion rubles.
According to preliminary estimates SRC "SKIF" will need about two hundred specialists in engineering and about a hundred researchers for technological equipment control as well as for providing and conducting the research in the center. This does not include those specialists who, having had the internship working with SR, will be able to solve industrial and scientific problems, working in the institute and manufacturing laboratories. Since NSTU NETI traditionally trains specialists in Engineering, it has launched two training programs for the SRC "SKIF": Master's Program "Radiophysical Research Methods" on the basis of Physical Engineering Department, Novosibirsk State Technical University (NSTU PED) to train various technical specialists (engineers, designers, production managers and other), as well as a special program for students of DRE NSTU (Electronic Devices Subdivision) to prepare specialists in the field of ultra-high vacuum, electronics, microwave devices and software. NSU has also launched a special interdisciplinary Master's Program "Methodological support of physical and chemical studies of condensed phases" to prepare potential users of the synchrotron center: chemists, physicists, biologists who are able to work at the disciplines intersection and understand the specifics of working with synchrotron radiation.
Reference: Synchrotron radiation is electromagnetic radiation emitted by charged particles moving at relativistic speed along trajectories curved by a magnetic field.
