Particle tracking and simulation studies are becoming increasingly complex. In addition to the use of more sophisticated graphics, interactive scripting is becoming popular. Compatibility with different control systems requires network and database capabilities. It is not a trivial task to fulfill all the various requirements without sacrificing runtime performance. We evaluated the effectiveness of the .NET framework by converting a C++ simulation code to C#. The portability to other platforms is mentioned in terms of Mono.

A second beamline, BL 7.2, completely dedicated to beam diagnostics is being installed at the Advanced Light Source (ALS). The design has been optimized for the measurement of the momentum spread and emittance of the stored beam in combination with the existing diagnostic beamline, BL 3.1. A detailed analysis of the experimental error has allowed the definition of the system parameters. The obtained requirements found a good matching with a simple and reliable system based on the detection of X-ray synchrotron radiation (SR) through a pinhole system. The actual beamline, which also includes a port for visible and infrared SR as well as an X-ray beam position monitor (BPM), is mainly based on the design of two similar diagnostic beamlines at BESSY II. This approach allowed a significant saving in time, cost and engineering effort. The design criteria, including a summary of the experimental error analysis, as well as a brief description of the beamline are presented.

BL 7.2 is a new beamline at the Advanced Light Source (ALS) of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) dedicated to electron beam diagnostics. The system, which is basically a hard x-ray pinhole camera, was installed in the storage ring in August 2003 and commissioning with the ALS electron beam followed immediately after. In this paper the commissioning results are presented together with the description of the relevant measurements performed for the beamline characterization.

Beamline 7.2 of the Advanced Light Source (ALS) at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) is a beam diagnostics system that uses the synchrotron radiation emitted by a dipole magnet. It consists of two branches; in the first one the x-ray portion of the radiation is used in a pinhole camera system for measuring the transverse profile of the beam. The second branch is equipped with an x-ray beam position monitor (BPM) and with a multipurpose port where the visible and the far-infrared part of the radiation can be used for various applications such as bunch length measurements and IR coherent synchrotron radiation experiments. The pinhole system has been operating successfully since the end of 2003. The installation of the second branch has been completed recently and the results of its commissioning are presented in this paper together with examples of beam measurements performed at BL 7.2.

The quality of infrared microscopy and spectroscopy data collected at synchrotron based sources is strongly dependent on signal-to-noise. We have successfully identified and suppressed several noise sources affecting Beamlines 1.4.2, 1.4.3, and 1.4.4 at the Advanced Light Source (ALS), resulting in a significant increase in the quality of FTIR spectra obtained. In this paper, we present our methods of noise source analysis, the negative effect of noise on the infrared beam quality, and the techniques used to reduce the noise. These include reducing the phase noise in the storage ring radio-frequency (RF) system, installing an active mirror feedback system, analyzing and changing physical mounts to better isolate portions of the beamline optics from low-frequency environmental noise, and modifying the input signals to the main ALS RF system. We also discuss the relationship between electron beam energy oscillations at a point of dispersion and infrared beamline noise.