Photon Factory Science Advisory Committee
Review of Material Science Section
Summary
July 1, 2020
Advisor:Jonathan Almer, Ph.D.
Advanced Photon Source (APS), Argonne National Lab.,
Chicago, IL, USA

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Institute of Materials Structure Science (IMSS)High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK)Based on the reports and presentations, I would like to answer thefollowing questions raised by the director of IMSS, Dr. N. Kosugi.
Answers to general questions:
1. How does the SAC evaluate the present status of the Mater. Sci. Sec.?
Researchers within the Mater. Sci. Sec. are doing an excellent job both in terms both their own
research activities and developing advanced synchrotron techniques. The Mater. Sci. Sec. has
an important dual role in both developing their own science and techniques as well as bringing
these developments to wider use for the user community. Having this dual role allows for staff
to have necessary freedom to move between the continuum of science and techniquedevelopment, based on staff interest/background and the needs of the group in terms of user
support. This is important for staff career growth as well providing positive feedback for usergroups. It also allows the group to be responsive to developing trends and immediate societal
needs, such as a Covid-19 related research which they have contributed to recently. Several
examples of the value of this dual role is given by the research and developments noted below.

2Answers to general questions (cont.):

It should be noted that the Mater. Sci. Sec. is operating in relatively constrained conditions,
namely a limited budget, relatively old facility (oldest synchrotron in Japan and nearly in theworld) and limited human resources. In particular, the staffing levels for beamline support areon the order of one person per beamline, which is significantly lower than for other facilities
worldwide (typically three or higher). This has some obvious limitations on ability of staff todevelop new instrumentation/techniques and potential overwork for the staff. It is therefore
important to consider additional support for the beamlines, either by deciding to consolidate
beamlines, providing higher levels of funding and/or making operations more efficient. To thispoint, the recently formed Center for Integrative Quantum Beam Science represents apromising way to enhance the budget, as well as provide a unique integrated suite oftechniques for materials evaluation.

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Answers to general questions (cont.):
2. How does the SAC evaluate research projects in the Mater. Sci. Sec.?
Are these research outputs adequate?
The Mater. Sci. Sec. has strategically chosen several areas to develop their research, which
include studies of chemical and mechanical heterogeneity, surfaces/interfaces and timeresolved processes. For each of these areas, the Mater. Sci. Sec. has pursued science aims toresolve long-standing questions in the field. For heterogeneity, in-situ imaging studies ofcarbon-matrix composites and EBCs have demonstrated world-leading spatial resolutions tostudy chemical and mechanical heterogeneity. Such studies provide information needed byindustrial partners to reduce weight and engine efficiency in aerospace materials. Similarly,iron-ore studies have revealed the distribution of iron-oxide phases with respect to porosity,
which is important information for steel-manufacturers. The time-resolved research has beenused to study dynamic processes including artificial photosynthesis, photo-chemical reactions
and shock-induced deformation with world-leading time resolutions. Through the developmentof time-resolved surface XAFS (TREXS), several surface catalytic processes have been
revealed, leading to several publications and grants.
For the 2013-2020 (partial) period, the total publications by Mater. Sci. Sec. members is 168
which represents about 20% of the publications at the group-supported beamlines which
average about 100 publications annually. Many of these publications are in high-impact
materials science journals (e.g. Nat, Nat Comm, PRL, JAP) and the publication rate isconsidered strong, and indicative of high and consistent scientific output by Mater. Sci. Sec.
and users they support.

4Answers to general questions (cont.):
3. How does the SAC evaluate the recent developments of facilities inthe Mater. Sci. Sec.?
There are several exciting developments within the research facilities operated by the Mater. Sci.
Sec.. These include development of new techniques, such as TREXS for studying
surface/interface properties, time-resolved spectroscopy and diffraction to study irreversible
processes and multi-scale in-situ studies including nano-CT under applied load. Total reflection xray spectroscopy (TREXS) is a new surface sensitive method developed within Mater. Sci. Sec.
which has been used to study catalytic processes with both academic and industrial partners. It
could be expected that TREXS will be used at other synchrotron facilities as well in comingyears. The time-resolved work leverages the unique properties of the PF-AR facility for high x-ray
energy, high-flux, and single-bunch experiments. Through instrumentation developments (lasersystems and electronics), Mater. Sci. Sec. scientists have developed ns-ps resolution capabilities
for both XAFS and diffraction measurements, which are of great interest to materials science
researchers studying dynamics. Ongoing efforts to couple these experiments with those from freeelectron lasers, to provide a wide time range (fs-μs) to observe dynamic processes areencouraged. In-situ loading capabilities developed for investigating crack formation in composites
and chemical speciation in environmental barrier coatings (EBCs) at the nano-scale level areworld-leading in terms of resolution. Use of such multi-scale and multi-modal probes toinvestigate a single sample in-situ at one beamline (as opposed to moving the sample betweenspecialized beamlines) is an ongoing trend at many synchrotron beamlines worldwide, and suchdevelopments are encouraged to continue at the Photon Factory and be supported at Mater. Sci.
Sec. beamlines in particular.

5Answers to general questions (cont.):
4. How does the SAC evaluate the funding situation of the Mater. Sci.
Sec.?
According to the provided information (Fig. 5.1.1. in the activity report), the budget provided by
IMSS for the group is limited to a small fraction of the overall budget, and this fraction has
decreased rather steadily from FY13-19. To supplement this budget, the Mater. Sci. Sec. group iscarrying out cooperative research projects with several private companies and pay-by-time use.
The amount of and funding level for such projects is impressive, important and should bepursued strategically. However it should be consideredthat the IMSS not be over-reliant on them for funding, as they can require extensive time andenergy to create – which competes with the staff’s need to complete core activities (research anduser support). Here some consolidation of beamlines across the Photon Factory facility may help
the operating funding burden (if same funding, this would provide more funding per beamline) as
well as provide the opportunity for strategic investments (e.g. robotics for sample changing, insitu equipment, detectors, etc.).

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Answers to general questions (cont.):
5. How does the SAC evaluate the relationship with industries?
The Mater. Sci. Sec. has several existing collaborations with private companies, which include
heavy industries (e.g. steel makers), transportation and electronics. This is reflected in the large
number of grants they are involved with, many of which involve industry (Table 5.1.1 in report).
They have provided key research results on materials as part of the ‘Structural Materials forInnovation’ national project which involves a lot of major companies. Such collaborations are very
important to understand needs in industries and provide positive feedback to industries on newmaterials and/or processes as well as deeper understanding of existing materials.

7Answers to general questions (cont.):
6. Is the Mater. Sci. Sec. moving in the right direction? Are the future
development items adequate?
Scientifically the Mater. Sci. Sec. has chosen several key areas to pursue, which as noted above
are considered good choices based on their wide breadth and societal and industrial impact. The
Mater. Sci. Sec. is pursuing many developments which should put them in strong position in thefuture. One of these is developing automated, high-throughput measurements, particularly for
XAFS. They have implemented many fly-scanning techniques for faster data measurement, withplans to increase these activities further (implement for more scans and at more beamlines).
They are also starting to apply information technologies and advanced algorithms to handle bigdata, such as obtained by multi- dimensional XRM data. These activities should be supported,
noting that the speed and number of the developments would increase (and maybe in manycases only be possible) if the number of staff per beamline increase. Management may consider
evaluating these areas on a more regular basis than 5 years (perhaps on the range of every 3years) given the rapidly evolving nature of science and technology at present.

8Answers to specific questions:
7. How does SAC evaluate the leadership of the Mater. Sci. Sec. in thefield of materials science? Has the Mater. Sci. Sec. supplied facilities andresearch environment that are essential for materials science research?
The Mater. Sci. Sec. is providing good strategic leadership in many materials science areas.
Examples include their development of automated and high-throughput measurements for
XAFS, leading time- resolved research and multi-scale, muli-modal studies of heterogeneity.
The Mater. Sci. Sec. has a dedicated in-house CT unit which is helpful to measure larger-scalematerials, complementing the nano/micro-scale synchrotron studies. This can be particularly
important to industry, who often havelarger samples they do not wish to cut and for which coarser, larger field of view scans provide
a good starting point/justification for more detailed synchrotron measurements. Outreachactivities are strong, particularly in the area of educating students and providing specialized
workshops to address the needs of users. By continuing to share their knowledge andinstrumental and technique developments with users, the group promises to positively impact
the materials science community for years to come.

9Answers to specific questions (cont.):
8. Does the Mater. Sci. Sec. have potential to play a role of aninternational academic research center?
The Photon Factory is already playing a strong role in the field of materials scienceinternationally, though it is relatively old facility and the budget and human resource is limited.
The Mater. Sci. Sec. provides both scientific and technical leadership within several Photon
Factory beamlines, and their dual roles should continue in order to provide the most benefits tothe scientific community worldwide. It is important that the Mater. Sci. Section both follow
important science trends and maintain a good relationship with corporations, as well as educate
young students and researchers. They appear to have been doing a good job in these respects
over their evaluation period. More broadly, they should play an important part in the CIQuS
initiative, which will harness four distinct probes operated by the IMSS (photon, neutron, muon,and positron) to evaluate/modify materials. As such coupled facilities are very rare, the Mater.
Sci. Sec. could take a leading role in researching ways to couple these probes in order toobtain key materials information.

10Answers to specific questions (cont.):
9. How does SAC evaluate the PR activities?
The Mater. Sci. Sec. appears to be doing a good job with outreach to several communities. This
includes industry, graduate students and other synchrotron facilities. The facility is taking on theimportant role of training graduate students, which will allow Japan to continue to provide astrong synchrotron presence worldwide. Examples include a special proposal for new students(T-type) and special course of the CUPAL program. The group has hosted several workshops
over the evaluation period to evaluate users needs and perspectives, particularly in relation topotential new/renovated beamlines or scientific directions, with at least some coordination withother synchrotron facilities within Japan. Their efforts to develop round-robin ‘standards’ anddatabases particularly for XAFS are notable as they provide consistency checks for users. The
Mater. Sci. Sec. group maintains several websites (e.g. https://www2.kek.jp/imss/eng/) which
are up to date and contain both relevant scientific highlights and facility details that potential
users may be interested in. Whether the group’s activities and impacts have penetrated into
mainstream society is difficult to judge. If this latter point is important, more support bydedicated PR staff could be useful as it is difficult for scientists to do this alone. Many lightsource facilities (e.g. ESRF, APS) have full time staff for these efforts.

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Answers to specific questions (cont.):
10. Any valuable comments for the future perspective of the Mater. Sci.
Sec.?
The PF in general, should take a closer look at the number of beamlines it is supporting andconsider if all are needed or can be consolidated, given the limited staffing. Maintaining the dual
roles of researchers and beamline support for staff within Mater. Sci. Sec. is important for providing
flexibility to address (often evolving) needs within the section. This flexibility is especially important
given the relatively low staffing for beamline support, to allow for ‘surging’ (putting 2 or more people
on upgrades for limited period), ensuring some overlap in expertise (e.g. if one person is sick, that
others can help out at their beamline) and can help staff morale (part of a large team which works
together).
One area which could benefit the Mater. Sci. Sec. and photon factory in general is increased
collaborations with specialists in data acquisition, data handling and computational science. While it
can be difficult to find and hire staff who have both some synchrotron as well as computer sciencebackground, they can have a wide influence on efficiency at the facility. For example, examining theopportunities of AI and robotics for sample changing may help alleviate some of the workload
among staff – noting however that significant efforts are required to set these capabilities up. The
activity report shows that the Mater. Sci. Sec. has started these activities and that I believe that theyshould continue to focus on these areas. This trend is increasing at synchrotron facilities worldwide,
so increasing support through new dedicated staff and/or part time consultants should be strongly
considered in the near future.

(end of the review summary)12