Since the construction of the 2-ID beamline, the micro-diffraction (µ-XRD) community has been very productive and has made significant technical and scientific contributions at 2-ID.

Nonetheless, due to the current constrained budget climate, ageing equipment, and the opportunity to provide significant enhancements in areas better aligned with the APS strategic vision of the future, APS management has concluded that it is now time to plan the end of operations of the µ-XRD instrument on 2-ID.

This will certainly impact the µ-XRD community currently at 2-ID in the short term. However, the 34-ID-E beamline at the APS is expanding its scope to include some of the µ-XRD techniques from 2-ID. In addition, XSD is providing staff to support the µ-XRD on the hard x-ray nanoprobe at 26-ID. We hope these two actions will partially mitigate the closure of the µ-XRD program on 2-ID. Members of the APS staff are available to discuss whether other beamlines might be suitable for certain classes of experiments that historically have used the 2-ID µ-XRD instrument.

Our plan is to continue operations of u-XRD experiments at 2-ID though fiscal year 2016 (i.e., until the end of run 2016-2).

APS management would like to thank the µ-XRD user community and APS staff for their outstanding scientific contributions and sustained effort to develop and enhance the µ-XRD program at 2-ID. We wish you the best going forward with your research and encourage you explore opportunities at beamlines 26-ID, 34-ID-C/E, and elsewhere at APS.