Participation at the First Greek Summer School on Synchrotron Radiation: properties and applications

My main research topic is to study the uptake and diffusion properties of different radionuclides. In our research in some cases synchrotron radiation is needed to be applied for two main reasons: (i) the concentration of analytes could be very low so that a laboratory equipment is not applicable, (ii) for  certain analytical techniques (XANES, EXAFS) a tunable excitation energy is needed. To get familiar with new analytical methods and to have a better insight on the evaluation of X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) this summer school looked a nice opportunity. During the 4-day long school 18 lectures (several of them were given by beamline scientists) and 6 lab courses were held. I had insight in the instrumentation of synchrotron facilities, on the possible X-ray optics and the fundamentals of the accelerator physics. Many X-ray scattering and diffraction lectures were given in connection to the lab courses where the evaluation for crystallogprahy were demonstrated. In my day-to-day life I apply X-ray fluorescence (XRF) for measuring both solid and liquid phase samples. To evaluate the XRF spectra I apply PyMCA software which is very complex and powerful tool. Two of the lab courses were dedicated to the application of PyMCA at different fields, these presentations were given by the developer of this software. A very nice presentation of XAS and a subsequetive practice were held where we had the opportunity to see how EXAFS spectrum are evaluated and how simulations are run. Thanks to the knowledge I gathered in this summer school in the future I will be able to try to interpret EXAFS results and come up with new ideas how to setup a beamline for our experiments.