Image Courtesy: ANL

A major upgrade to a U.S. X-ray facility is giving scientists a much more powerful way to observe how materials behave at the atomic scale. Researchers at Argonne National Laboratory say the upgraded Advanced Photon Source (APS) can now produce X-ray beams with 500 times greater brightness, allowing scientists to study atomic structures and track the formation of defects as materials are exposed to real-world stresses.

The APS, which began operating in 1995, is a synchrotron X-ray facility used to investigate the structure and behavior of materials. Its comprehensive upgrade, completed in 2026, has transformed it into what Argonne describes as the world’s brightest synchrotron X-ray source. The increased brightness enables researchers to capture far more detailed information about materials while they are changing, according to Argonne National Laboratory.

The advance is particularly important for nanoscience, where materials can behave very differently from their bulk counterparts. At extremely small scales, quantum effects and surface forces such as electrostatic and molecular interactions can strongly influence optical, electrical and chemical properties.

Argonne researchers are using the upgraded facility alongside a new tool called the In Situ Nanoprobe, or ISN. The system allows scientists to examine materials under realistic operating conditions rather than only studying them before or after an experiment.

That capability could help researchers observe how defects emerge, grow and affect performance while materials are subjected to environmental stresses. The resulting information could contribute to research into energy storage, microelectronics, quantum technologies, sensing, catalysis and advanced manufacturing.

Gary Wiederrecht, director of Argonne’s Center for Nanoscale Materials and Nanoscience and Technology division, said nanoscale research can reveal properties that do not appear when materials are examined at larger scales.

Argonne physicist Sarah Wiegold said the ISN adds the ability to examine nanoscale behavior under realistic conditions to the APS’s existing capabilities.

The nanoprobe also works alongside other APS techniques that study materials at different length and time scales. Combining these methods could allow researchers to connect changes occurring at the atomic and nanoscale levels with the eventual performance of larger material systems.

By making it possible to watch materials evolve rather than simply examining their final state, Argonne’s upgraded X-ray capabilities could provide scientists with new insight into why advanced materials succeed, degrade or fail.