General Purpose Surface-Muon Instrument (GPS)
Instrument Scientist:
Alex Amato <alex.amato@psi.ch>
Co-responsible Person:
Hubertus Luetkens <hubertus.luetkens@psi.ch>
Written Documentation available
- A short list of what is new in 2011 is available
here.
- A User Guide is available containing useful information on the sample environment, field, beam, etc...
The guide is available in a PDF
Version (2.0 Mbytes).
- Quick References are also available:
- A manual for the acquisition software deltat is available in
HTML fomat or in PDF format
- A manual for the new electronics (so-called TDC-Electronics) is available in
HTML fomat or in
PDF format
General Specifications
- Location: area piM3.2
- Positive muons, standard momentum: 28MeV/c)
- Muon polarization >95%
- Direction of spin ~6-60° with respect to muon momentum
- Positron detectors: 2 longitudinal, 3 transverse
- Look also here to obtain information
on our Muon On REquest ("MORE") setup.
Detector Arrangement
The detector arrangement consists of
- A muon detector (M)
- Five positron detectors (with respect to the beam direction):
- Forward (F)
- Backward (B)
- Up (U)
- Down (D)
- Right (R)
- A Backward veto detector (B_veto).
This detector consists of a hollow scintillator pyramid with a 7x7 mm hole
facing the M counter.
The purpose of B_veto is to collimate the muon beam to a 7x7 mm spot and
to reject muons (and their decay positrons) missing the aperture ("active
collimation"). - A forward veto detector (F_veto), rejecting
muons which have not stopped in the sample (and their decay positrons). It
is used with small samples. When the sample/holder assembly stops all muons,
F_veto can be added to the F detector to increase the forward solid angle.
Available drawings of the detector arrangement:
Sample Environment
Flow-Cryostat
- Type: Quantum Technology Corp. "top (or side) loading" continuous-flow He-4
evaporation cryostat. Sample in He-4 exchange gas.
- Temperature Range 2-300K, liquid-He consumption approx. 2.5l/h at
base temperature. (Liquid He comes in dewars with approx. 230 litres capacity).
- Liquid He is supplied at regular intervals (Mondays and Fridays)
at the filling station in the experimental hall (west gallery).
While the orders for liquid He are placed by the instrument scientist, the
users are expected to take care of the transport of the He dewars betweeen
the filling station and the experimental area, to change them on the specified
days and to return empty dewars immediately to the filling station.
- Two sample holders per cryostat allow fast sample change.
- Remote-controlled sample rotation (360°, rotation axis perpendicular
to muon polarisation).
- For the manual, please look into the GPS User Guide (PDF-format or
Postscript-format)
Maximum Sample Size and Recommended Sample Mount
- Free diameter of the sample chamber: 23mm.
- Maximum sample length (including mount): 45mm.
- Sample region drawing available in
GIF (12kB) or
PostScript
(80kB) format.
- Sample holder platform as in the CCR and Janis cryostats of the GPD Instrument. Drawings of a possible
sample mount are available here.
For more details please contact the Instrument
Scientist.
- Please note:
The users are expected to bring their own sample holders and
make sure that the samples are safely sealed and fixed on the holder.
Users who intend to bring hazardous sample materials (radioactive,
toxic, flammable, etc.) to PSI should read the instructions on our safety page well in advance of their scheduled
beam time.
CCR--4K
- Type: Janis with Sumitomo Heavy Industries Cold-Head: "top (or side) loading".
- Sample in He-4 exchange gas when operated between 4K and 300K.
- Used as a "warm finger" when operated between 300K and 475K.
- Installed on the 2nd cryogeny port.
- For the manual, please look into the GPS User Guide (PDF-format)
Zürich Oven
- Type: Zürich University design.
- Used as a "warm finger" when operated between 300K and 1000K.
- For the manual, please look into the GPS User Guide (PDF-format)
Magnetic Fields
- Main magnetic field (WED): 0-0.6T parallel to the beam
- Auxillary field (WEP): 0-10mT perpendicular to the beam
Earth-field compensation is usually better than 0.001mT for all directions.
To cope with the external magnetic field sources present in the Experimental
Hall, an automatic compensation is now performed.When performing
experiments in zero-field mode, the compensation is done dynamically to ensure
true zero-field conditions independently of the status of the external
magnetic field sources.
When performing experiments in applied-field, the compensation is done
according to tabulated values depending on the status of the external magnetic
field sources.
Electronics / Data Aquisition
Data Format and Storage
The users are responsible to store in a safe place their own data.
Every week a backup of the data is performed in the PSI Archive system and
the specific muSR ftp-server (see here
for more information).
You are strongly adviced to retrieve your data ("bin"-format) using our
new ftp-server.
Logic
The new TDC electronics is characterized by a logic performed
exclusively at the software level. A manual is available in
HTML fomat or in
PDF format.
Also the main Manual of GPS
provides information about the logic diagram.
For the old electronics, the logic diagram based on the PTA ORTEC 9308 Unit is available
here
(PS-file 500 kB).
Computers
The area is equipped with a Experiment Console (running
Scientific Linux) pc6012.
The µSR data acquisition system hardware consists of this console
and a Linux back-end server (psw405) located in the computing building (Hauptgebäude).
This back-end is connected to a front-end PC running Windows-XP and controlling
the PTA ORTEC 9308 Unit.
A number of different devices (temperature controlers, magnetic field
power supplies, etc...) are used for the slow control of the experiment.
These devices are mainly controlled via GPIB (IEEE-488) bus or RS-232
serial line.
- GPIB :
The GPIB devices are controlled through a Agilent LAN/GPIB Gateways (E2050A
and the newest E5810A).
- RS-232 :
The RS-232 devices are controlled through either a Agilent LAN/GPIB Gateways
(E5810A)
which supports one RS-232 line, or a Lantronix ETS8PS
8-channel RS232 terminal server
The acquisition software
deltat is based entirely on the DAQ software package
MIDAS.
Two Linux Workstations are also available and can be used through
a usual AFS account or a local account (ask the instrument scientist for
information). From these machines, one can connect also to the Linux
cluster.
The secondary
beam-line control system controlling all beam-line elements (magnets,
slit systems, separator etc.) between the target station and the experiment
consists of a CAMAC crate containing the interfaces and modules needed for
the beam line, a server PC (connected via RS232 to the CAMAC crate) and an
area PC. The server and area PC's are connected via Ethernet.
Area PC: Intel processor running under Windows XP.
Printers
Information about how to print at PSI is available
here.
Printing from Unix and Linux is now performed using the CUPS
system.
From UNIX/Linux-Cluster you can either use the glp
command and choose the appropriate printer (WEHA_EG_1).
You can also set the environment variable PRINTER to be
equal to the name of your printer, and use the lpr command.
For more information on CUPS, just look here.
To print from a Windows Laptop, one should just install the corresponding
printer:
Click the Start button and choose Run...
option.
When prompted for a command just type \\winprintw
If a account and password is requested, just use "guest" as account and
disregard the password by pressing ENTER
On the list choose the corresponding printer (WEHA_EG_1).
Right click and choose Install...
For more information, look here.
From a Linux Laptop you can install a CUPS client. Look here for more
information.
Finally one can also print local files directly from a browser using
this link.
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