FY20 Mid-Year SLAC Performance Evaluation and Measurement ... · investigations focus on...

FY20 Mid-Year SLAC Performance Evaluation and Measurement Plan Self-Evaluation Document Approval (signature/date)

Laboratory Director: _____________________________________________________________________ Chi-Chang Kao

03/31/2020

FY20 SLAC MID-YEAR PERFORMANCE EVALUATION AND MEASUREMENT PLAN SELF-EVALUATION

March 31, 2020 MID-YEAR of 66

GOAL 1: Provide for Efficient and Effective Mission Accomplishment

M A J O R A C C O M P L I S H M E N T S

Elements in Support of 1.1 – Science and Technology Results with Meaningful Impact The following section demonstrates the laboratory’s significant science and technology contributions that are aligned with Department of Energy (DOE) mission needs.

BASIC ENERGY SCIENCES (BES)

SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC) achieved high-profile scientific results and technology advances that meet the BES mission of fundamental research to understand, predict, and ultimately control matter and energy at the electronic, atomic, and molecular levels to provide the foundations for new energy technologies. The following provides a review of recent relevant science results and technology advances, and references associated publications.

Chemical Sciences

The PULSE ultrafast chemical science program, in collaboration with the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS), Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL), and Accelerator Directorates, focuses on developing leadership capabilities in ultrafast and X-ray science and using them to capture the real-time motion of electrons and nuclei in a broad range of chemical systems. Current investigations focus on characterization and control of electron dynamics on attosecond time scales and excited electronic states in photochemical and photocatalytic systems. The SUNCAT Center for Interface Science and Catalysis focuses on the atomic-scale design and synthesis of catalysts for sustainable energy conversion and storage, with an emphasis on theory-driven catalyst design and in-situ characterization of catalytic mechanisms. This fundamental understanding is applied to processes and catalysts of importance for energy transformations, particularly those involving the sustainable production and use of fuels and chemicals. The research directions of both core activities make extensive use of the unique capabilities at SLAC, notably LCLS, SSRL, ultrafast electron diffraction (UED) and, in the future, LCLS-II.

Ultrafast Chemical Science (UCS) FWP

Characterizing ultrafast chemical dynamics with experiment and theory: Controlling light-driven chemical transformations requires mastery of the strongly coupled motion of electrons and nuclei in molecules. The accurate experimental characterization and theoretical simulation of complex chemical phenomena provide a critical milestone toward achieving chemical control. A key aspect of the UCS field work proposal (FWP) is the development and application of ultrafast X-ray scattering and spectroscopy to directly observe the electronic and nuclear dynamics during chemical transformations. This approach has been applied to understanding the electronic excited state properties of photosensitizers and photocatalysts composed of non-precious metal complexes. The research has been focused on extending the lifetime of chemically active charge separated states. Central to this objective is determining how metal-centered excited states lead to deactivation of the charge separated states of iron-based photosensitizers [Nature Comm. 11, 634 (2020) and Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 132, 372 (2020)]. A goal of this research is transitioning from observation to prediction and control of photochemical reactions. This motivates theoretical and experimental studies of organic photochemistry with advanced theoretical and ultrafast experimental methods. The ability to simulate X-ray spectroscopy observables from ab initio quantum molecular dynamics simulations has been an area of focus in preparation for LCLS-II [DOI: 10.26434/chemrxiv.11859183.v1] and previously developed methods for simulating ultrafast valence photoelectron spectroscopy have been used to gain understanding of the photoprotection mechanism of DNA bases [J. Phys. Chem. A 123, 10676 (2019)].

Harnessing the unprecedented peak intensity of X-ray lasers to interrogate matter: Strong field X-ray and optical lasers present important opportunities to interrogate the properties of molecules and materials with nonlinear light-matter interactions and attosecond temporal resolution. Volt/Ångström-scale laser fields can drive large amplitude charge displacements on the attosecond time scale and provide experimental access to the dynamics of electron-electron correlations in quantum systems. Resolving the motion of electrons on attosecond time scales with attosecond X-ray pulses at LCLS has focused on the generation and characterization of the first sub-femtoseccond soft X-ray pulses from an FEL [Nature Photonics 14, 309 (2020)]. The broad spectral bandwidth of attosecond pulses presents new opportunities and challenges for transient X-ray absorption spectroscopy. This activity has developed a new technique, based on ghost imaging, to conduct sub-bandwidth transient absorption spectroscopy [Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 22, 2704 (2020)]. The UCS FWP also has an effort focused on understanding the dynamics of correlated electronic excited states in 2D materials confined systems. Recent efforts have focused on how the details of heterobilayer structure and composition influence interlayer charge transfer excitons in semiconducting transition metal dichalcogenide [Phys. Rev. Lett. 123, 247402 (2019)].

SciDAC FWP

Both the current and next generation of supercomputers are built on heterogenous parallel architecture with heavy reliance on



graphical processing unit (GPU) accelerators. The focus of this work is on how to best utilize this hardware in the context of electronic structure theory. We have developed an algorithm to use multiple GPUs to accelerate the exact solution of the electronic Schrodinger equation in a basis of Slater determinants (full configuration interaction, FCI). This program makes it possible to perform FCI iterations in a space of 2.4 billion determinants in roughly 10 minutes using only 6 GPUs. This will make it possible to perform excited-state dynamics simulations using large FCI expansions on readily available hardware [Fales and Martinez, J. Chem. Theory Comput., DOI: 10.1021/acs.jctc.9b01165]. Along similar lines, we are applying GPU acceleration in the context of coupled-cluster theory. In this case, we have developed a GPU-accelerated implementation of coupled-cluster singles and doubles (CCSD). Our implementation is capable of performing CCSD computations with 1300 basis functions and 100 atoms in less than one day on a single compute node (with eight NVIDIA Tesla V100 GPUs). To match this performance with recently developed massive parallel implementations of CCSD by other research groups, between 100 and 200 CPU nodes would be required (depending on the specifics of the hardware, CCSD computation, and software implementation).

Quantum Information Science FWP

This work is focused on understanding how to utilize near-term quantum computers for simulations of light harvesting systems. Last year we introduced the multi-state contracted variational quantum eigensolver (MCVQE) to determine on equal footing the ground and excited states of a given Hamiltonian. With the goal of performing nonadiabatic dynamic simulations on natural and synthetic light harvesting complexes in mind, we formulated the analytic first derivatives of MCVQE energies with respect to a change in the nuclear coordinates. We developed this specifically for the case of an excitonic model of multi-chromophoric systems [arXiv:1906.08728v1]. Work is ongoing to couple this gradient theory with high performance classical evaluation of the Hamiltonian matrix elements using acceleration from GPUs. We are also exploring the limits of classical simulation of quantum algorithms through the multi-layer multi-configuration time-dependent Hartree (ML-MCTDH) method. While the classical requirements to simulate a quantum algorithm grow exponentially with the number of qubits, it is not always the case that the information content of the wavefunction stored in those qubits also grows exponentially. ML-MCTDH provides a means of compressing the data associated with the wavefunction and also allows the application of quantum circuits to the wavefunction within this compressed representation [Ellerbrock and Martinez, PRL (submitted 2020)].

SUNCAT FWP

The effort to enhance the understanding of catalytic processes requires the continued development of theoretical and computational methods that effectively link catalyst stability and morphology with surface reactivity. Strain-engineering of bimetallic nanomaterials is an important design strategy for developing new and more efficient catalysts. At the SUNCAT Center for Interface Science and Catalysis we have developed a model that explicitly predicts adsorption site stabilities in nanoparticles and connects these site stabilities with catalytic reactivity and selectivity [J. Chem. Phys. 152, 094702 (2020)]. In addition, we included strain-based dependencies to increase the model’s accuracy for nanoparticles affected by finite-size effects. We explicitly quantify the interplay between destabilizing strain effects and the energy gained by forming new metal-metal bonds. The study introduces and, by comparison with previous experiments, validates an efficient density functional theory (DFT) based approach for strain-engineering the stability – and in turn the catalytic performance – of active sites in bimetallic alloys with atomic-level resolution [J. Chem. Phys. 152, 094701 (2020)].

The identification of fundamental principles in thermal and electrocatalysis guides the synergy between theory and experiment at SUNCAT. Research has recently focused on Rh-based catalysts, since such catalysts have shown promise in the direct conversion of syngas to higher oxygenates. We show that MoO3-promoted Rh nanoparticles form a novel catalyst structure in which Mo substitutes into the Rh surface, leading to both a 66-fold increase in turnover frequency and an enhancement in oxygenate yield. By applying a combination of atomically controlled synthesis, in situ characterization, and theoretical calculations, we gain an understanding of the promoter-Rh interactions that govern catalytic performance for MoO3-promoted Rh. We combined atomic layer deposition, in situ X-ray absorption spectroscopy, and density functional theory calculations to identify two roles of MoO3: a) the presence of Mo–OH in the catalyst surface enhances CO dissociation and also stabilizes a methanol synthesis pathway not present in the unpromoted catalyst; and b) hydrogen spillover from Mo–OH sites to adsorbed species on the Rh surface enhances hydrogenation rates of reaction intermediates [J. Am. Chem. Soc. 141, 50, 19655 (2019)]. A comprehensive study employing different levels of first principles theory adsorption energies on transition metal surfaces were benchmarked against high-fidelity experimental data, resulting in both improving the accuracy and reliability of computational surface catalytic predictions and identifying issues of many electronic structure approaches in accurately modeling chemisorption on magnetic metals [Phys. Rev. B 100, 035439 (2019)]. An improved meta-XC functionality was developed based on model systems and successfully benchmarked against experimental surface chemistry data [J. Phys. Chem. A 123, 5395 (2019)].

SUNCAT’s work on understanding the rates of oxygen evolution reaction in Co-oxides contributes to the development of a general model that can describe potential-dependent Tafel behavior in consecutive electrochemical reactions [Energy Environ. Sci. 13, 622 (2020)]. A systematic comparison of all catalyst classes across the periodic table – and their oxidation states – has not yet been fully developed, but the first-row layered transition metal (oxy)(hydro)oxides have been fully categorized [ChemCatChem, 11,3423–3431 (2019)]. In collaboration with experiments at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL)/UC Berkeley, SUNCAT theory has



identified the mechanisms of two- and four-electron electrochemical oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) on nitrogen-doped reduced graphene oxide (NrGO) [ACS Catal. 10, 852 (2020)]. The sp2 carbons located next to oxide patches were identified as dominating the ORR activity, and the different fractions of the sp2 carbons in differently prepared NrGO samples can explain activity trends. The simulations moreover show that the density of states at the catalyst Fermi energy – and hence the catalyst conductivity – governs whether coupled electron-proton transfer, and thus the four electron ORR dominates.

Co-ACCESS FWP

Co-ACCESS continues to support catalysis researchers in characterizing catalysts with operando X-ray measurements. One supported study by a team of researchers from Co-ACCESS, UC Santa Barbara, UC Irvine, and the University of Michigan resolved discrepancies in the literature between the behavior of Pt single atom catalysts in surface science studies and DFT calculations compared to those observed for high surface area catalysts. The study found that at higher loading, a distribution of Pt species is formed that is difficult to distinguish using state of the art characterization techniques, but exhibits markedly different behavior in terms of molecular interactions. The strong influence of uniformity and local coordination of isolated Pt species interactions with adsorbates reinforces the importance of using low metal loadings to develop rigorous structure-function relationships in atomically dispersed metal catalysts [J. Amer. Chem. Soc. 142, 169 (2020)].

Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis (JCAP) FWP

The JCAP theory activity at SLAC focuses on developing a fundamental understanding of the CO2 Reduction Reaction (CO2RR) mechanism, developing new methods for an accurate treatment of the electrochemical interface, and discovering beyond cu-metal derived CO2RR electrocatalysis. These efforts are directly crosslinked with experiments at SLAC.

We recently proposed an alternative approach to treating the relevant electrochemical processes with lead to gain better agreement with existing experiments for C1 [Applied Catalysis B, submitted (2020)] and C2 product distributions. Our work characterizes the role of atomic carbon in directing electrochemical CO2RR to multi-carbon products [Joule, submitted (2020)]. In experiment-theory driven collaboration, we have resolved the long-standing controversy surrounding the rate-limiting step CO2 reduction with experiments on gold at neutral to acidic pH values [Nat Comm. 11, 33 (2020)]. This work highlights the importance of surface charging to encourage electrochemical kinetics and mass transport. We have also performed a calculation that provides the upper bound on electron transfer to the CO2 molecule upon adsorption on Au(211) [J. Phys. Chem. C 123, 48, 29278 (2019)]. Our work shows that the electron transfer is very facile during the adsorption at the metal|solution interface. Recent collaboration between Alex Bell (UC Berkeley) and SUNCAT has resulted in understanding the effect of solvent cation identity on electrochemical CO2 reduction [Energy Environ. Science 12, 2851 (2019)].

The negative charge distribution of the hydroxide ion at the electrochemical interface was analyzed in our recent work [PCCP, accepted (2020)]. We show that the spurious charge transfer between the ion and the interface can be effectively mitigated by continuum charging of the electrolyte. We also propose a unified approach to implicit and explicit solvent simulations of electrochemical reaction energetics that removes the bias present in all work-function based models [J. Chem. Theory Comput. 15, 6895 (2019)].

Single transition-metals (3d-group and beyond) embedded in graphene and N-doped graphene are a very promising class of non-Cu catalysts. Recently, experiments from the Jaramillo group show enhanced performance for CO2 to CO conversion for Ni-based systems [Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 59, 2 (2020)]. We are in the process of extending the theory to understand these systems, including the catalyst structure under operando conditions and future single atom variants capable of reduction beyond CO.

Ultrafast Catalysis FWP

This recently initiated FWP seeks to employ the ground-breaking capabilities of X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs) to probe the fundamental processes of charge transfer and chemical transformation at interfaces that underlie heterogeneous catalysis. The project encompasses both experimental and theoretical research to support this aim.

To enable the identification of short-lived intermediates in the ultrafast studies, the theory efforts have benchmarked the calculation of X-ray absorption spectra and shifts caused by surface and adsorbate structural changes using existing static experimental data. In particular, different types of full- and half-core hole pseudopotentials have been constructed for the K-edges of both carbon and oxygen (manuscript in preparation). These theoretical studies, as well ab-initio molecular dynamics simulations, are being applied to elucidate recent experimental studies led by co-principal investigator (PI) Nilsson for the response of CO/Ni and C/Ni to ultrafast laser excitation.

Initial experimental results have recently been obtained on ultrafast electron dynamics for the model system of a monolayer of graphene physisorbed on a copper substrate. In investigations carried out at the Pohang Accelerator Laboratory XFEL, we observed clear dynamical signatures of the charge transfer process in which carriers excited in the metal substrate are transferred to the C-adlayer. Charge transfer occurring on the sub-picosecond time scale was identified by the rapid change in the carbon K-edge absorption spectrum. The detailed temporal evolution of the spectrum, which reflects electron occupancies in different valence



states of the graphene layer, is currently being analyzed to infer information about carrier density and energy in the allayer on the femtosecond time scale.

Materials Sciences

The Division of Materials Science (SIMES) is organized around three pillars of research, pursuing grand challenge problems in the areas of quantum materials, ultrafast materials science, and chemical energy storage. Our 12 FWPs and associated BES partnerships have made considerable progress in these areas, including the following highlights.

In the area of quantum materials, our research during this past six months has uncovered a number of non-trivial revelations concerning the question of what makes a great superconductor. For example, with regard to progress on cuprate superconductivity, following earlier work that identified a rapid change in superconductivity and bosonic coupling in cuprates across 19% hole doping [Y. He et al., Science 362, 62 (2018)], a recent work showed via Angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) that 19% marks a vertical line boundary, irrespective of the temperature that demarcates well-formed quasiparticles from incoherent “strange metal” behavior [S. Chen et al., Science 366, 1099 (2019)]. Advanced numerical simulations have also zoomed in on an understanding of what may be the root cause of “strange” behavior at T>Tc, and whether simple models – such as the Hubbard model and variants – support a ground state similar to those of cuprates [E. W. Huang et al., Science 366, 6468 (2019) and H.-C. Jiang et al., Science 365 6460 (2019)]. Remarkably, a new thin film oxide compound in which nickel could be placed into a valence state similar to copper was discovered and shown to have a superconducting phase [D. Li et al., Nature 572, 624 (2019)]. This work was followed by numerous others studies on this particular material, including X-ray-based efforts by our group to characterize the electronic structure of this and related materials [M. Hepting et al., Nature Materials (2020) https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-019-0585-z]. This work builds on the principle that high temperature superconductivity can be found to lie near correlated insulating phases where lattice localization is blocked. This includes the framework of twisted graphene, where our team found unexpected emergent ferromagnetism near “magic” twist angles [A. L. Sharpe et al., Science Vol. 365 (2019)]. These six articles – four in Science, one in Nature, and one in Nature Materials – are a result of the synergy realized by combining materials synthesis, characterization, and theory, which is the basis of each of our FWPs.

In the field of ultrafast materials science, progress while awaiting the reopening of LCLS-II for Run 18 in May 2020 includes the following. Beamtime access has been secured for a number of our PIs who are either leading or participating in “Science Campaigns,” specifically Turner, Trigo, Lee, Reis, and Lindenberg. Highlights from the past six months include identifying new ways of using time-resolved photoemission to pinpoint momentum-dependent electron-phonon coupling via a novel kinetic argument in graphite [M. X. Na et al., Science 366, 1231 (2019)] and identifying a way of using terahertz detection to fingerprint light-induced currents at domain walls in multiferroics [B. Guzelturk et al., Nano. Lett. 20, 145 (2020)]. Also, a summary report on the development of q-RIXS at the Advanced Light Source (ALS) was published [Y.-D. Chuang et al., J. Elec. Spec. (2019) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.elspec.2019.146897]. Currently under development is work related to time-domain resonant inelastic X-ray scattering.

Our efforts focused on the design of future battery cathodes has yielded the following results during the past half year. It was found that 2D materials can be tailored to allow for supercooled phases of elemental sulfur to be deposited with larger areal capacities than solid sulfur [A. Yang et al., Nature Nano technology (2020] https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-019-0624-6]. This concept has also shown to be generally relatable to electrotunable wetting at low voltages in a controlled way [G. Zhou et al., Nature Comm. 11, 606 (2020)]. Moreover, novel chemical ways to modify the Madelung landscape in hybrid Cu-Br Perovskites was shown to be useful to allow high conductivity under pressure, with tunable photon absorption in a more technologically accessible region [A. Jaffe et al., Angewandte Chemie (2019) https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201912575].

Computer Sciences

The Computer Science (CS) Division’s work focuses on developing tools to reduce the cost and effort of performing large scale data analysis and simulation, especially for heterogeneous, distributed machines such as the DOE’s leadership class facilities. The CS Division works with LCLS-II on the ExaFel project and has joint research projects with multiple other groups at SLAC and at other national labs.

The CS Division also collaborates on the production software development effort for LCLS-II, contributing specifically to the development of a new generation of AMI, the interface that allows facility users to monitor and control experiments. This collaboration has been quite productive, and in addition to contributing to AMI has also allowed the members of the CS Division to gain a deeper understanding of LCLS-II software issues.

Machine Learning (ML)

We formed a machine learning group in the Accelerator Directorate in 2018 to concentrate on applying machine learning techniques to problems specific to optimizing the operation of accelerators and complex facilities. The team is engaged in developing advanced ML methods for accelerator design, modeling, diagnostics, and tuning, and are actively involved in community activities that help shape the future of the ML research area. The SLAC staff started working on ML for accelerators before others became interested



and have maintained a leadership position around the world. Xiaobiao Huang (group leader) played a major role in the BES AI/ML roundtable held in Washington, D.C. in October 2019 by leading the online control working group and contributing to the writing of the roundtable report. Claudio Emma and Auralee Edelen organized the “Advanced Control Methods for Particle Accelerators (ACM4PA) 2019” Workshop. The workshop report was recently published [A. Scheinker, C. Emma, A. Edelen, S. Gessner, DOI: 10.2172/1579684 (Dec. 2019)]. The team has applied ML techniques at accelerators around the country, resulting in numerous publications. One recent example is: Development and application of Bayesian optimization for free-electron laser tuning [J. Duris, D. Kennedy, A. Hanuka, J. Shtalenkova, A. Edelen, A. Egger, T. Cope, and D. Ratner, M. McIntire and S. Ermon, Phys. Rev. (Lett. Accepted, Feb. 2020)].

Accelerator Research

An upgraded terahertz (THz) accelerator/compressor structure was utilized on the SLAC ultrafast electron diffraction (UED) beamline. The primary focus of these experiments was to validate the performance of the compressor with ultrafast experiments ranging from 2D material (graphene) response to intense THz pump to electron-phonon coupling in single (SiC) and poly-crystalline (Bi) samples [Physical Review Letters 124 (5) (Feb. 2020), 054801].

SLAC accelerator scientists are pursuing several novel concepts for producing narrow band-width x-rays at FELs. The Cavity-based XFEL promises true laser-like radiation properties in the hard X-ray regime. DOE BES has funded an R&D collaboration between SLAC and Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) to demonstrate key X-ray cavity technology and to show gain using a two-bunch Cu-linac beam. The project has progressed very well, with the initial focus on the physics requirement document and conceptual design review. Experimental studies to characterize diamond crystals and diagnostics have been carried out at American Physical Society (APS) and also at SPring-8, our international collaborator on diamond crystals. A second scheme is an X-ray laser oscillator (XLO) in the 5-12 keV range, based on an atomic gain medium using the process of stimulated X-ray emission and a 4-Bragg-crystal bow-tie cavity. Using the LCLS copper linac multi-bunch mode, the XLO is pumped by a train of Self Amplification of Spontaneous Emission (SASE) pulses that are matched in time with the round-trip time of the cavity of ~2-10 ns. The XLO will provide users with stable, fully coherent, transform-limited hard X-ray pulses with ~5 ∗ 1010 photons in a bandwidth of ~50 meV, enabling XFEL-based science beyond the current scope [A. Halavanau, C. Pellegrini et al., three-year proposal submitted to DOE-BES (Feb. 2020].

The continued development of high-brightness, continuous wave (CW) electron sources are critical for current and future FELs at SLAC and other labs. Increases in electron sourcebrightness translate directly into extended x-ray photon energy reach for experimenters, at much reduced cost compared to alternative methods. We have engaged with Argonne National Lab and LBNL on a program to push the state-of-the-art in electron sources, both normal conducting and superconducting, with support from DOE BES.

HIGH ENERGY PHYSICS (HEP)

SLAC researchers produced high-profile scientific results and technology innovations that advance the HEP mission to understand how our universe works at its most fundamental level through investigating the most elementary constituents of matter and energy, exploring the basic nature of space and time, and probing the interactions between them.

Energy Frontier Research

The energy frontier program is predominantly represented by collaboration on the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). To maximize its impact, the SLAC ATLAS team of roughly 20 people leverages both its expertise – in silicon pixel detectors, the application of advanced ML techniques in diverse area such as online trigger, flavor tagging of jets and simulation, and Higgs physics – as well as SLAC’s unique capabilities, such as electronics and data acquisition. The key project goal for the next few years is to exploit the Run 3 data and the construction at SLAC of the ITk pixel inner system for use during the high-luminosity LHC run. As the innermost part of the upgraded charged particle tracker, this system is crucial to the key science goal of understanding the properties of the Higgs boson while operating in the intense radiation environment next to the beam pipe.

Several significant SLAC-led ATLAS efforts have been completed or developed during FY20 in our focus on Higgs-related physics and the corresponding tools, as enumerated: 1) The SLAC group continues to leverage our strength in flavor tagging and machine learning to develop tools to tag b-jets and c-jets. An earlier improvement in light jet rejection by 80% for a fixed b-jet tagging efficiency has been followed with similar optimizations of the soft muon tagger, and a new tool based on recurrent neural network (RNN) is being deployed. These improvements directly impact a wide range of ATLAS studies. 2) Search results based on the full Run 2 statistics of 150 fb-1 for the Higgs boson produced in association with a W/Z boson and decaying to charm quarks is undergoing ATLAS internal review. A SLAC scientist leads the analysis of the Z decays to two neutrinos. 3) The SLAC-led search for the associated production of bH is being extended to the full Run 2 dataset. 4) Our involvement and leadership in tracking and vertexing continues with a SLAC scientist serving as the tracking liaison to Higgs and di-boson search groups, and as the convener of vertexing in ATLAS. 5) Group members are active in all three of the most sensitive channels in the search for Higgs pair production: 4b, 2b2tau, and 2b2photon. A SLAC scientist co-coordinates the 4b analysis; another is the analysis contact for the 2b2photon analysis; and another is the lead of 2b2tau where the tau leptons are identified in their hadronic final state, which is the decay mode with the



highest branching ratio and is also the most challenging because of background. In addition, a SLAC scientist is the coordinator of ATLAS di-Higgs studies for the HL-LHC. 6) We are building on our extensive ML development work to investigate novel uses in ATLAS and beyond. Detector simulation a la Geant4 is computationally intensive and represents the bulk of ATLAS offline computing. New ML approaches will allow greater physics productivity. There have also been investigations into using ML techniques for generic simulation and optimization applications [see https://arxiv.org/abs/2002.04632). Another application is high-level trigger, which represents the bulk of ATLAS online computing. More efficient ML techniques will enable more discriminating triggers, better use of trigger bandwidth, and hence greater physics productivity. 7) SLAC continues its involvement with the MATHUSLA project [(Mar. 2019) arXiv:1903.04497], which focuses on the very weakly interacting long-lived particle regime as a complement to ATLAS and CMS capabilities. A technical design report is anticipated for the end of 2020. 8) SLAC is committed to the Snowmass process, and has initiated a modest study of a possible photon collider as an alternative to e+e- colliders for the study of the Higgs boson.

Intensity Frontier Research

The intensity frontier program at SLAC is a vibrant mix of activities covering neutrino physics, the search for dark matter, and exploring the unknown, which represent three of the High Energy Physics Advisory Panel (HEPAP) P5 science drivers. SLAC makes key contributions to the global long- and short-baseline accelerator-based neutrino program, and originates and operates smaller SLAC-led experiments such as the Heavy Photon Search (HPS) and EXO-200. These efforts build on our core competencies to innovate, design, and fabricate new and increasingly sensitive instruments.

Neutrinos are studied by fundamentally different probes that give us different views of their properties, and SLAC plays key roles in each of these probes. The SLAC accelerator-based neutrino team participates in the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) short-baseline experiments MicroBooNE and ICARUS, where the focus is on: the data acquisition system; event reconstruction, including machine learning techniques for data analysis; and exotic and astrophysics data analyses. The team is also a founding member of the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE), with data acquisition and science roles on Proto-DUNE and the 35-ton prototype, in cold electronics, event reconstruction, and near detector R&D. SLAC also collaborates in the T2K experimental program.

Short Baseline Neutrino Program

The SLAC group has played an essential role in laying the foundation for analysis at MicroBooNE and the liquid argon (LAr) time projection chamber (TPC). Contributions include calibration and software developments leading to a major simulation production that will be the basis for MicroBooNE results starting in the summer of 2020, as well as fundamental neutrino reconstruction developments using both traditional and cutting edge machine learning techniques that are advancing the global LAr TPC effort and resulting in publications. The simulation development is essentially complete, and further contributions to machine learning algorithms using speed and resource optimizations developed at SLAC are being incorporated into the first results from the experiment on the flagship low energy excess analyses, which are expected later this year.

The SLAC group’s key contributions to ICARUS during the current reporting period include: Usher, as software and analysis co-convener, continues to play a leading role in the software and computing infrastructure for the experiment, including preparation for the first data expected from the detector this summer; and following the wire connectivity tests performed by Convery and Petrillo, SLAC continues its leading role in bringing the detector into operations, with Tsai leading the data acquisition effort.

SLAC group members played a significant role in the following publications: [“Search for heavy neutral leptons decaying into muon-pion pairs in the MicroBooNE detector,” accepted by PRD], with Yun-Tse Tsai as former Astrophysics and Exotics group convener for MicroBooNE; and ["Calibration of the Charge and Energy Response of the MicroBooNE Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber Using Muons and Protons," JINST (Feb. 2020)].

DUNE

Following extensive testing to demonstrate the full functionality chain of the first iteration of the CRYO ASIC (application specific integrated circuit) for the DUNE LAr TPC readout, a second iteration has been submitted. Once a round of initial tests is completed, the new chip will be incorporated into the ICEBERG test platform at Fermilab and eventually into ProtoDUNE-SP for its second run.

SLAC continues to lead the mechanical design for the modularized LAr detector concept for the DUNE near detector, which has now advanced toward the production of prototype detectors. SLAC has also produced the first high-voltage feedthroughs and test lamination procedures for the lightweight field cage for the first large-scale prototype module, which will be assembled and operated this year.

SLAC team members contributed to the following publications: ["Prospects for Detecting Boosted Dark Matter in DUNE through Hadronic Interactions," to be submitted to PRL], with Yun-Tse Tsai as co-convener of the HEP Working group, as well as to the DUNE Far Detector Technical Design Report.

https://arxiv.org/abs/2002.04632

http://arxiv.org/abs/arXiv:1903.04497



EXO-200

Together with Stanford, SLAC developed the use of enriched 136Xe TPC technology to search for neutrinoless double-beta decay and share stewardship of EXO-200. Data collection was completed in FY20, and the final neutrinoless double-beta decay analysis was completed and submitted for publication [(Oct. 2019) arXiv:1906.02723]. Additional publications with significant SLAC roles in FY20 include: 1) The development of deep neural networks for energy and position reconstruction in EXO-200 [JINST 13 no. 08, P08023 (2018)]; 2) A search for nucleon decays with EXO-200 [Phys. Rev. D 97, 072007 (2018)]; 3) A measurement of the scintillation and ionization response of liquid xenon (LXe) at MeV energies in the EXO-200 experiment [(arXiv:1908.04128)]; and 4) An advisory role in a measurement of electron transport in LXe and xenon gas using a laser-driven photocathode [(arXiv:1911.11580)]. The experiment has ended and been dismantled, with useful components shipped to SLAC.

HPS and Dark Sectors

The exploitation of intense, low-energy electron accelerator beams to probe dark sectors – light dark matter that is charged under its own forces – was pioneered by SLAC scientists who continue to lead in defining the field. These projects have included the A-Prime Experiment (APEX) and Heavy Photon Search (HPS) experiments at Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (JLab), and the proposed Light Dark Matter eXperiment (LDMX) at SLAC.

SLAC stewards the first experiment dedicated to searching for dark forces – the HPS experiment – which operates in Hall B at JLab. SLAC participated in operations of the experiment from June through September 2019, with primary responsibility for the newly upgraded silicon vertex tracker (SVT). Assembled in a small cleanroom at SLAC, the new SVT includes an additional layer of silicon, Layer 0, that is placed closer to the beam than the previous first layer to improve vertex resolution and physics reach. This project required the first use of newly developed slim-edge sensor technology in an experiment, described in a paper recently submitted to NIMA. HPS is currently focused on data analysis and preparations for resuming operation in the summer of 2021.

SLAC scientists continue to play a leading role in the development of new searches for hidden sector dark matter with accelerators. The LDMX collaboration, led by SLAC physicists, has put forth a proposal for development of the experiment under the Dark Matter New Initiatives call for proposals. The work plan of the SLAC-led consortium aims to prepare for the construction of the experiment within the next two years, with the intention of operating LDMX using the proposed S30XL beamline at SLAC in End Station A, which can provide several thousand hours of parasitic beam time annually to a multi-purpose science program. A recently completed paper [(Dec. 2019) arXiv:1912.05535] outlines the critical background veto for LDMX and has been submitted for publication to JHEP. Another recently completed paper [arXiv:1912.06140] describes how LDMX data can be used to measure electron-nuclear cross sections that are critical to interpreting the data from the long-baseline neutrino program at Fermilab, and has been submitted for publication to PRD.

Cosmic Frontier Research

SLAC’s cosmic frontier program is targeted at the mysteries of dark matter, dark energy, and inflation, which lie at the heart of the HEPAP P5 science drivers. SLAC is the lead lab for DOE contributions to the Vera C. Rubin Observatory as it prepares to carry out its Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). SLAC will provide expertise for the construction, integration, testing, and commissioning of the LSST Cam camera, operation of the Rubin Observatory facility, and will also serve as the host lab for the LSST Dark Energy Science Collaboration (LSST-DESC). SLAC has also contributed significantly to the Dark Energy Survey (DES) and Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) projects, and in doing so has gained considerable experience that will be directly applicable to the Rubin Observatory and its LSST. SLAC is also the lead lab for SuperCDMS SNOLAB. In addition to providing project management and operations management, SLAC provides technical leadership for detector fabrication and is responsible for design, assembly, and cold testing of the final detector towers. The dark matter program also includes a broad technical scope for LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ), where major contributions include the TPC electric field grids, the electron extraction region at the top of the TPC, and a custom-built krypton removal system, as well as leading the offline analysis effort. The effort on cosmic microwave background stage 4 (CMB-S4) is ramping up, with SLAC team members playing critical roles in detector and readout R&D, small aperture telescopes, systems engineering, as well as development of analysis techniques using Stage 3 datasets. FY20 marks the end of the participation of SLAC scientists in the scientific program of the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (FGST), although limited FGST operations support will continue at SLAC.

Dark Energy: LSST and LSST-DESC

The Rubin Observatory LSST is the cornerstone of the SLAC cosmic frontier program. Over its 10 years of accumulation, the vast LSST data set will enable unparalleled tests of the lambda-CDM (cosmological constant plus cold dark matter) cosmological paradigm, spanning a wide range of time and space. A SLAC faculty member is the overall director of LSST, responsible for both the NSF and DOE construction efforts, while a senior staff scientist serves as deputy director of operations. SLAC research staff hold a number of key leadership roles in the LSST-DESC.



The critical goal of the LSST camera group is the successful completion of the camera at SLAC and its commissioning at Cerro Pachón in Chile, leading to the start of Rubin Observatory survey operations. Toward that end, there is a very substantial cosmic frontier research funded effort on the camera, including almost all aspects of camera construction. Most of the scientists now working on aspects of camera construction will move their research to commissioning, and when commissioning is complete many will still devote a significant fraction of their effort to operations. The expertise built during camera construction and testing will be critical in successfully commissioning, operating, and understanding the instrument.

Significant progress on the LSST camera construction was made by the SLAC team in a number of key areas during the first half of FY20. In. particular, the complete focal plane was successfully assembled and brought under vacuum, with demonstrated functionality of all of the science and corner raft subsystems. This was a major milestone on the project. The system is now being cooled for electrooptical testing. In addition, the complete filter exchange system was delivered by the IN2P3 team to SLAC, and made operational. Finally, the utility trunk for the camera was successfully assembled and verified, and the commissioning camera was shipped, first to Tucson, and then to Chile.

Rubin Observatory commissioning operations are underway on Cerro Pachón with DOE and NSF staff working in excellent partnership. The DOE deliverable of a completed summit clean room is complete. Also complete are the manufacture of the camera refrigeration pathfinder at SLAC, assembly of the Major Item of Equipment (MIE) and MREFC ComCam deliverables in Tucson, and installation of the MIE delivered camera refrigeration cabinets.

Rubin Observatory (LSST facility) operations began in October 2018, with the first four years of pre-operations coinciding with the project commissioning period. Some research-funded scientific staff have started to ramp up their operations roles in FY20. Significant planning activity was performed in the Rubin Observatory operations director’s office in FY20. The deputy director of LSST operations role is filled by a SLAC scientist. During FY20 the deputy director has been working closely with the Rubin Observatory operations director and operations team department heads to refine the 2017 operations plan into a detailed plan for joint agency review in April 2020, including accommodation of the new joint agency funding model. Solicitation and evaluation of international in-kind contributions to Rubin Observatory operations and LSST science (in return for LSST data rights) was begun.

In addition to its lead roles in the construction of the LSST camera and in the operation of the Rubin facility, the SLAC team is actively engaged in preparations for dark energy science with LSST data. Though the observatory name has been changed to Rubin, the collaboration will maintain its LSST-DESC name. SLAC is leading operational support efforts for LSST-DESC and helping to develop the analysis pipelines. SLAC is also leading the design and execution of the large data challenges required to test these pipelines, as well as the computing infrastructure that will be needed during the survey operations.

Highlights over the past year include: 1) The collaboration’s Science Roadmap (SRM) was updated in the fall of 2019 to incorporate experience from its second data challenge (DC2); also updated were elements of the Rubin Observatory commissioning plan. 2) The international resources committee (IRC) met in January 2020, where collaboration progress, budget and international data rights issues were presented and discussed by the agencies; the IRC will continue to meet twice a year. 3) SLAC scientists led the collaboration’s computing infrastructure operations efforts, contributed to the pipeline infrastructure work, and provided overall scientific management of LSST-DESC operations. 4) The collaboration’s SRM DC2 is well underway with three of five simulated survey years completed. A task force co-led by SLAC staff assembled the collaboration’s LSST data management stack image processing pipeline, which was run on the simulated images at CC-IN2P3 and NERSC, thereby gaining experience in needed resources and scaling behavior. Discussions are underway for the Rubin Operations team to use the DC2 data in early data release production exercises. 5) SLAC scientists are using the DC2 data products to investigate machine learning approaches to emulate the Rubin catalog and detect time delay lens systems in that catalog. 6) SLAC scientists continue to develop simulations for DESC, drawing on their work with the DES. Several working groups are using these simulations to develop analysis tools for LSST, including photometric redshifts, galaxy clustering, galaxy clusters, and theory and combined probes.

Dark Energy: Dark Energy Survey (DES) and Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI)

SLAC scientists continue to play a significant role in DES data analysis and cosmological simulations for DESI. The collaboration, including leadership and broad participation from SLAC scientists, is working toward cosmology analysis with the Y3 data set, which is expected to provide a factor of 3 improvement over Y1 in the key cosmology figure of merit. SLAC scientists have developed a new method of estimating photometric redshift distributions – phenotypic redshifts with self-organizing maps – that integrates data acquired by DES with those available in public databases. This method implements several features of machine learning and is now being applied to the Y3 data. SLAC scientists played leading roles in analysis of the DES deep fields, which are an essential input into robust photometric redshifts from the wide survey. SLAC scientists provided catalogs of galaxies with robust photometric redshifts (the redMaGiC sample) as well as catalogs of galaxy clusters (the redMaPPer sample) that form the basis for Y1-Y3 cosmological analyses of large-scale structure and galaxy clusters. These catalogs are the basis of a new cosmology analysis based on Y1 cluster abundances, which is forthcoming. SLAC scientists are developing new, more robust techniques to combine cluster measurements with weak lensing and clustering measurements that are expected to be implemented on Y3 data in the coming year. SLAC scientists have played a leading role in new measurements of satellite galaxies in the Milky Way, with a focus on constraining the nature of



dark matter. SLAC scientists have led the design and production of cosmological simulations that are at the heart of nearly all of the DES cosmology analyses. This work is also having an impact on DESI science planning and tool development. SLAC scientists provided leadership to the DESI cosmological simulation efforts, based on extensive experience with the DES program, including leading the design and implementation of a mock challenge for baryon acoustic oscillation and redshift space distortion measurements that is being used to prepare for the upcoming data and analyses.

Dark Matter: SUPERCDMS SNOLAB

SLAC is the lead lab for SuperCDMS SNOLAB, with SLAC scientists providing project management and operations management as well as technical leadership for detector fabrication. The lab is also responsible for the design, assembly, and cold-testing of the final detector towers.

Fabrication of the detector towers is at an advanced stage, with 50% of the detectors fabricated and all mechanical and electrical parts either fabricated or due back from fabrication in the near future. We have achieved our 40 mK goal in a Si pathfinder detector, which should allow us to achieve the very low energy thresholds planned for the Si detectors. The assembly of the first iZIP tower with an iZIP detector and vacuum coax readout cable is nearing completion. An extensive testing program for the readout electronics and prototype detectors was conducted at SLAC that demonstrated the electronic system design and data acquisition system (DAQ) system achieved performance goals. SLAC provided core support for the evolution of Geant4 to accommodate the phonon detection needs of SuperCDMS, and plays a central role in the program for validating background simulations. The first pathfinder detector (a Germanium High-Voltage detector) and tower are successfully installed in the CUTE facility, and detector testing is underway. Data from the operating pathfinder detector are being transferred to SLAC for processing and insertion into the SuperCDMS data catalog at SLAC. The first data challenge was conducted with 2.4 terabytes (TB) of simulated event data transferred from SNOLAB to SLAC and was successfully processed through the processing pipeline at SLAC. The processed data were made available to the SuperCDMS collaboration through the data catalog.

Dark Matter: LUX/LZ

SLAC scientists will play a major role in LZ’s final construction and transition to operations. Detector commissioning is expected to take place in the summer of 2020, and CD-4 approval is scheduled for August. SLAC project scientist Biesiadzinski is leading the TPC assembly, integration, and verification effort at the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) in Homestake, South Dakota. This includes integrating the central TPC with the cryogenic vacuum vessel, followed by transported to the underground location and installation in the water shield. Final integration with readout electronics, cryogenics, and Xe systems is underway.

The krypton removal production system that will be used to purify 10 tons of xenon for use as the LZ target via gas charcoal chromatography completed commissioning in the fall of FY20, and satisfied the relevant threshold key performance parameter (KPP) of meeting the purity specification of 0.3 ppt of residual krypton in the processing of 100 kg of xenon. Following the latest commissioning readiness review, the LBNL project management office has approved operations for the first storage pack of 1 ton of xenon to be processed. The team is currently working on transitioning into the production run, as service equipment is tested and repaired as needed. These include a compressor with a manufacturing defect, a recovery pump that exhibited “teething” pains from air leaks into the high-purity process space, and water leaks from the pump cooling systems. At the time of this writing, known problems have been addressed and the system is coming back into full operation. Despite these technical challenges, we expect to complete this work in FY20.

LZ just completed its third and final mock data challenge (MDC3), under the leadership of co-leads Monzani (offline and computing Level 2 manager) and Fan Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMP) search co-convener. This data challenge simulated the first six months of LZ data taking – which constitutes the initial science run – and includes the full LZ analysis chain through a WIMP exclusion plot, including a bias mitigation strategy. The entire simulation and analysis chain was tested and optimized at NERSC on high-performance computing (HPC) resources.

SLAC participation in LUX has been ramping down. The primary area of work is convenorship of the effective field theory working group to explore a broader range of WIMP-nucleus couplings. We expect to complete a paper on this topic in 2020.

Dark Matter Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope

The focus of SLAC’s FGST group has been on FGST’s dark matter science program. FY20 marks the end of SLAC scientists’ DOE-supported participation in this science program, although some FGST operations support will continue. SLAC co-led the effort that resulted in the publication of the largest and deepest-yet catalog of gamma-ray sources that is based on eight years of large area telescope (LAT) data and a refined model of the galactic interstellar diffuse gamma-ray emission [Abollahi et al., 4FGL, ApJS, (in press 2020)]. The catalog and model will serve as a starting point for follow-up studies; of particular interest are unidentified sources that may be Milky Way subhalos seen in the light of dark matter annihilation. A search for such sources, co-led by a former research associate at SLAC and based on the previous (3FGL) catalog, was published in November [Coronado-Blazquez et al., JCAP 11:045 (2019)].



Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB)

SLAC scientists continued leading and participating in both a broad program of CMB instrumentation and analysis with Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization (BICEP) and South Pole Telescope (SPT), as well as in the development of the CMB-S4 concept past CD-0 via its interim project.

SLAC scientists involved in BICEP continued systematics checks and preliminary analysis of the BICEP3 dataset, the largest inflation-search dataset acquired to date. New inflation search results from this dataset are expected to be produced by the end of FY20. New techniques devised at SLAC for increasing signal-to-noise and reducing contamination of B-mode data at low angular multipoles are being implemented in this analysis, along with removal of lensing contamination signal using SPT data.

SLAC scientists are investigating the use of BICEP and SPT data for a search of low-mass axion-like particles that could comprise fuzzy dark matter by searching for a polarization modulation signal as proposed in [Phys. Rev. D 100, 015040 (July 2019)].

SLAC scientists and engineers continued development of a high-density multiplexing readout for the superconducting transition-edge sensors of CMB-S4. A demonstration of this readout technology on a BICEP/Keck Stage-2 camera during 2019 was concluded, and CMB maps from this demonstration were published [J Low Temp Phys (Jul. 2019)].

SLAC scientists, engineers, and managers continued planning for CMB-S4 in both leadership and support roles within the collaboration and interim project. Irwin and Ahmed serve as Level 2 managers for detectors and readout, respectively. Kurita leads the project’s systems engineering and Akerib is responsible for technical baseline development. Hewett serves as the senior team lead for SLAC. Irwin and Ahmed have helped conduct internal reviews for technical decisions in the detectors and readout subsystems. Akerib advises the small aperture telescope and detector Level 2 leads on preparation for CD-1. Kurita has continued to conduct project-wide risk assessments and has started establishing systems and interface standards for the project.

Theoretical and Computational Physics

Theoretical Particle Physics

This program performs research with a broad view across subdisciplines, addressing crucial questions ranging from the development of fundamental theories to detailed calculations that are essential input for high-energy physics experiments. Research topics span precision calculations and quantum chromodynamics (QCD), beyond the Standard Model phenomenology and model building, dark matter phenomenology and model building, and neutrino physics. The group provides strong theoretical support to the experimental HEP programs at SLAC across the frontiers, and also engages with a broad array of experiments being carried out internationally. Group members take a leading role in the development of new initiatives worldwide. Long-term group member Stanley Brodsky retired on December 31, 2019 and a new group member, Bernhard Mistlberger, will join at the beginning of April 2020. Since the beginning of FY20, members of the particle physics theory group have so far published 36 papers on the preprint arXiv or in refereed journals. Highlights of this research in the various sub-disciplines include:

The inclusive Drell-Yan lepton pair-production cross section via photon exchange at hadron colliders was obtained in QCD to third order in the strong coupling constant. The detailed color structure of the emission factor for soft gluons was obtained at full 2-loop order. Soft quark Sudakov form factors were determined to three-loop order in QCD. The possibility of employing diffractive dissociation of alpha particles to test for isophobic short-range correlations inside nuclei was examined.

A study of the energy resolution of liquid argon detectors such as DUNE, and its influence on the interpretation of neutrino experimental results, is ongoing. The possibility of using precision electron-nucleus cross section measurements with the proposed LDMX dark photon detector to reduce uncertainties in similar neutrino cross section measurements at DUNE was examined. A study of the capability of an augmented FASER dark matter detector to probe for new neutrino interactions was performed with the corresponding technical proposal approved by CERN.

Dark matter phenomenology was studied in a broad spectrum of dark sector scenarios. The possibility of detecting axion-like dark matter at low masses by employing superconducting resonance frequency conversion was examined. A way to veto important photon backgrounds with high efficiency at the LDMX dark photon experiment was obtained. A study of the capabilities of the BDX dark matter experiment at JLab to more deeply probe dark sector model parameter space was updated. A model for a generalized non-abelian dark sector with links to the Standard Model via light mediators – with broad experimental implications for both accelerator and non-accelerator based experiments – was examined with an eye toward an eventual UV-completion. A phenomenological study of the impact of fermionic portal matter responsible for the kinetic mixing of the dark photon with the Standard Model photon was completed, and work on its extension to scalar portal matter was begun. The impact of non-standard Tsallis statistics, active in the early universe, on the target WIMP



annihilation cross section needed to achieve the observed relic density via s-wave annihilation was analyzed in detail. The possibility of probing the details of dark sectors through the neutrino mass related fermion portal employing higher dimensional operators was examined. The capability of extending the search sensitivities of the FASER, MATHUSLA, and SHiP experiments to long-lived particles with shorter lifetimes employing secondary production mechanisms were explored.

New physics scenarios that address issues with the Standard Model, assist with precision calculations in QCD, or predict special unique signatures were constructed and analyzed. These include:

o A comprehensive study was performed of the abilities of various colliders to probe new physics in the Standard Model Higgs pair production process. A general analysis for the capability of the ILC to indirectly probe for new physics employing precision measurements of Standard Model observables was completed.

o The possibility of employing neural networks to detect data departures from a given reference model, with no prior bias on the nature of the new physics responsible for the discrepancy, continues to be analyzed. The values of the three point energy correlators in the collinear limit were obtained, along with a study of their associated symmetries and dualities. The possible origin of the six-gluon amplitude in planar N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory was explored. Expressions for all-order amplitudes of any multiplicity in the multi-Regge limit were obtained. The resummation of subleading powers of rapidity logarithms in N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills gauge theories for the energy-energy correlator was performed.

o A new warped extra-dimensional model with gauged flavor sector physics and low fine-tuning in its bulk mass parameters was constructed and its implication for future B-physics measurements at Belle II and LHCb was examined.

Theoretical Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (PAC)

PAC theory addresses key questions in particle astrophysics and cosmology, with particular relevance to the experimental program at SLAC including cosmic surveys, dark energy, dark matter, inflation, and high energy particles. Research activities involve modeling, data analysis, and cosmological and astrophysical simulation relevant for near-term cosmological constraints from surveys and for developing new directions. Since the beginning of FY20, members of the group have published 34 papers on the preprint arXiv or in refereed journals. Highlights of this research include:

Theoretical contributions to several results from the Dark Energy Survey, including cosmological measurements from galaxy clusters, cosmological simulations, and the interpretation and characterization of photometric redshifts.

A new method to connect galaxies and dark matter halos across cosmic time “The Universe Machine,” that combines the results of high-resolution cosmological simulations with data from z=0-10. This method and its results are already in wide use with more than 100 citations in less than six months.

A new cosmological analysis of SDSS/BOSS data using the effective field theory of large scale structure, which pushes to smaller scales and achieves better constraints than previous analyses.

Contributions to CosmoDC2, the simulation suite developed for LSST DESC, and the first publication from the collaboration; these contributions were based on our long-term program of work on the connection between galaxies and dark matter halos.

New analysis of dwarf galaxies in DES and PanSTARRS data and development of a new theoretical framework for characterizing these data; new constraints on the minimum mass dark matter halo that can host galaxies, with implications for a range of dark matter models, and theoretical contributions to the southern stellar stream survey, which has the potential to use stellar streams to constrain dark matter models.

New machine learning approaches to model strong gravitational lensing, including new techniques using convolutional neural nets and recurrent neural nets that can provide more robust error analysis.

Results from a large suite of cosmological simulations to emulate several cosmological statistics, including the halo mass function, as a function of cosmological parameters essential to extracting science from galaxy surveys including DES, DESI and LSST, and development of simulation challenges for DES, DESI, and LSST DESC.

Development of models to interpret very high energy gamma rays and cosmic rays from astrophysical jets.

Quantum Information Science

Developed and tested first coupled multi-frequency superconducting thin film mm-wave resonators. These resonators will serve as the building blocks for quantum transducers that will extend the spectral reach of quantum sensing applications for applications such as dark matter searches [Multani et al., APS March Meeting (2020); Kucchal et al., APS March Meeting (2020)].



Developed DM radio pathfinder as a platform to demonstrate quantum optimized dark matter searched and used the platform to set a new narrow-band limit on hidden photons.

Developed two-stage DC SQUID for dark matter measurements. Designed, modeled, and began fabrication of the first RF quantum unconverters for measurement below the standard quantum limit.

Developed and tested first superconducting thin film mm-wave resonators. These resonators will serve as the building blocks for quantum transducers that will extend the spectral reach of quantum sensing applications for applications such as dark matter searches [Stokowski et al., IRMMW (2019)].

Invested strategically in low temperature (100 mK) test equipment and an Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) targeting materials development for quantum transduction. These investments will create a dedicated setup for validating quantum devices as we explore material performance in heterogenous material platforms. They are also providing a vehicle to understand how we can use our premier ultrafast facilities applied to quantum information such as the application in recent UED experiments targeted at understanding mechanisms for decoherence in thin film superconductors and defect centers in semiconductors.


Developed Superconducting RF (SRF) LDRD prototype of a parallel-feed superconducting linac structure and supporting cryostat modifications to enable high-power testing.

Demonstrated full peak power operation of low-cost (5X reduction) modulator prototype as described in [Kemp, Ng, IEEE, IPMHVC (2020)]. Moving forward we will be exploring scaling for power density needed for accelerator facilities and technology transfer to industry.

Completed designs that aim to demonstrate compact accelerators capable of operation at extremely high repetition rates and peak currents for both medical applications [Radiother Oncol. 139:28-33 (2019), doi: 10.1016/j.radonc.2019.05.005] and security applications.

Achieved record electron beam compression with THz accelerator [Physical Review Letters 124 (5), 054801 (Feb. 2020)] and demonstrated emittance preservation. Building from successful high gradient tests at MIT reaching 230 MeV/m, we completed fabrication of structures with reduced surface fields (2X) and cold-tested a prototype of a high-brightness field-emission THz gun. These structures will proceed to high power test at MIT. THz accelerator work will be presented at the APS March Meeting 2020 with invited talk [Nanni].

Laser additive manufacturing was used to directly fabricate loads, electro dumps and electroform rf cavities. Exploring potential to utilize technology for prototyping, reducing part count/cost, improving thermomechanical stress and cooling, and removing design constraints.

Electron beam additive manufacturing has been demonstrated to produce ultra-high vacuum-compatible RF travelling wave cavity structures with surface losses of only about 2.5 times higher than smooth oxygen-free high-conductivity copper.

As part of our U.S.-Japan collaboration, we performed analysis on breakdown testing of cryogenic distributed coupling structures and produced a mechanical design for a C-band distributed coupling structure optimized for high-gradient and heavy beam loading.

A new modeling capability in calculating the heat load on a cavity surface has been implemented in the time domain module T3P of SLAC accelerator simulation suite ACE3P that facilitates the procedure of calculating surface power loss during the transit of a beam. This provides a much-needed tool for scientists designing a new kicker for the SLAC SPEAR ring. For software development, a standalone tool for converting unstructured finite element data format (based on NetCDF in ACE3P) to structured finite difference data format (based on OpenPMD for IMPACT) has been parallelized, which substantially reduces the time by more than an order of magnitude of writing files using multiple cores on NERSC computers. This avoids the bottleneck due to I/O when performing integrated cavity field and beam dynamics optimization in which many runs are required in the simulation workflow. The new ACE3P has been released for the user community and includes enhanced modeling capabilities such as a nonlinear eigensolver for evaluating cavity modes, bug fixes, and performance tuning on the ungraded NERSC Cori computer. Highlights of ACE3P applications include recent advances in multiphysics capabilities using HPC [Xiao et al., IEEE J. Multiscale Multiphys. Comput. Tech. 4, 298 (2019)] and integrated simulation with beam dynamics code IMPACT and plasma code Warp [Ge et al., NAPAC (2019)].

New computational methods for RF modeling of advanced RF sources and systems are under development [Gold and Tantawi, IEEE JMMCT 4:245-259 (2019)].

RFX instrument cavity design was updated to increase its coupling efficiency by fifteen times, enabling stroboscopic short pulse as well as high-resolution short-term averaged RF induced strain measurements. Tensile strain equivalents to 5.6°C

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31178058



temperature rise have been measured. Development of the cryogenic version of the RFX instrument (C-RFX) is underway to enable the measurement of a material’s response to electromagnetic radiation at 2 K. RFX and C-RFX instruments will transform our understanding of materials behavior under high power electromagnetic fields and enable development of new materials and surfaces with significantly higher performance capabilities.

As part of the preparation for experiments at FACET-II, a special collection of six articles on proposed extreme beam physics experiments was published in Physical Review Accelerators and Beams within the past year. These appeared in the journal Physical Review Accelerators and Beams, Volume 22, and form the core of the exciting FACET-II experimental program.

The study of Coherent synchrotron radiation (CSR) in bunch compressors places an important limit for advancing the brightness of the electron beam in free electron laser facilities and linear colliders. Currently, the longitudinal wake in the 1D theory was implemented in many tracking codes, which are routinely used for the design of bunch compressors. To develop a complete theory that includes the centrifugal force, we started the work to extend the 1D theory to a 3D theory in steady state. The theory resolves the retardation effort and reduces the dynamical effect to the 3D integrals of convolution with the longitudinal derivative of the instantaneous bunch distribution. [Y. Cai, Y. Ding, “Three-dimensional effects of coherent synchrotron radiation by electrons in a bunch compressor,” PRAB 23, 014402 (2020)].

Accelerator Stewardship

Completed the GREEN-RF inverse Marx design and the mechanical design of the 5045 klystron radiation cooled collector is nearing completion. Efforts to identify initial partners for a first demonstration continue. Ideal use cases include medical linacs and large-scale physics accelerators.

Developed and modeled RF accelerator structures for 3D rapid proton beam scanning that promises to deliver high dose radiation treatments with great precision [Lu et al., NAPAC (2019)]. RF deflector performance exceeded proposed parameters by 5X [Snively et al., APS March Meeting (2020)]. Fabricated the first structure and collaborated closely with medical partners to model dose deposition.

Detector Research and Development

Replaced the time-division multiplexing cryo readout for a section of the BICEP/KECK telescope at the South Pole with a prototype µMUX GHz cryo multiplexer and deployed the SLAC microresonator radio-frequency (SMuRF) warm electronics for control and readout. Operated the entire 2019 polar winter observing season and met CMB-S4 noise performance requirements. Now modifying components to perform over temperature range at high altitudes toward potential CMB-S4 telescopes. SMuRF is also compatible with transition edge sensor (TES) and MKID, and calorimetric particle detectors, (e.g. DM search). Started exploration of a solution using the new RFSoC (radio-frequency system-on-chip) chips, which would result in about 4x higher channel density and lower power dissipation and cost. The SMuRF system processing algorithm was ported to an RFSoC test board and first results show noise meeting CMB-S4 requirements.

Demonstrated fabrication of thin silicon wafers (75 μm) for potential LHC detector upgrades that would result in higher yield, lower cost, and faster processing. Thin sensor wafers will mitigate scattering and improve angled occupancy.

Designed and tested a 64-channel cold ASIC for liquid argon DUNE application. This ASIC integrates all functionality (amplifiers, digitizers, serial communication) on one chip and would replace 18 custom chips of 3 types in the current baseline with 2 SLAC ASICs on each for the approximately 2,000 front-end boards. It would reduce complexity in the almost inaccessible cryostat, provide higher reliability and the same or better performance (work in progress), and lower the cost. Minor design modifications are in progress for the second prototype.

NUCLEAR PHYSICS (NP)

SLAC achieved high-profile results and technology innovations that advance the NP mission in fundamental symmetries to develop a better understanding of the fundamental properties of the neutrino.

Fundamental Symmetries

The SLAC program in fundamental symmetries consists of research and development of a next generation neutrinoless double-beta decay experiment employing enriched liquid xenon TPC technology. This technology provides a homogeneous detector with the ability to simultaneously identify and measure both signal and background. Over the past four years, the nEXO collaboration has developed a conceptual design for a 5-tonne TPC that can achieve the sensitivity standard for neutrinoless double-beta decay set by the 2015 Nuclear Science Long Range Plan. Research and development is being performed with the aim of reducing the inherent risk in scaling the EXO-200 design to the tonne-scale.

Several detector R&D efforts had significant involvement by SLAC scientists. Work continues toward a design of a high voltage (HV) feedthrough for nEXO (and for the Phase III HV test stand at LLNL) using iteration of design and electrostatic modeling. A few alternatives were under study; in a workshop on June 2019, the design proposed by the SLAC group was chosen as the preliminary



baseline for nEXO, although project leadership for this work has been moved to Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). SLAC scientists participated in the HV R&D program at the Phase III HV test stand at LLNL. A series of experiments at SLAC has begun to examine power dissipation issues expected for the CRYO ASIC. Our research associate Sander Breur has spearheaded first-step experiments that were designed and completed to determine fundamental properties of boiling onset in LXe as a function of temperature and pressure. In December 2019, Breur, Rowson, and Mong deployed into the SLAC LXe test cell a test-specific FR4-board (“miniboard”) with a wire-bonded ASIC, designed with input from the SLAC group. Several ASIC miniboards were fabricated with different variants of a custom designed and built high-radio purity silicon/SiC heatsink. These tests demonstrated that, as expected from simulation work done with the PNNL group, the “bare ASIC” when powered causes bubble generation, an effect entirely mitigated by an installed heat sink. The total power dissipated by the ASIC was determined to be 1.5W (1.9W was predicted by the EE team). This work is continuing in February, with additional miniboard tests planned and additional tests designed to uncover the cause of irregularities seen with some fraction of the installed ASICs.

Mong and Breur have taken on Level 4 project responsibility within the Radioactive Backgrounds Control (RBC) effort for nEXO. An organizational meeting was held at SLAC in February, including RBC leadership and project engineering leadership (Vincent Riot, LLNL), and project documentation is now in preparation with contributions from the SLAC team. A proposal to construct an LXe distillation system for radon removal similar in design to one built by the XENON collaboration has been put forward by Mong and Breur. This project will be moved to the “TPC Support Systems” heading (led by Andrea Pocas, UMASS), as this is a more appropriate place for an elaboration of the nEXO xenon recirculation system. The plan is to submit this R&D work for consideration for LDRD funds at SLAC.

The SLAC liquid xenon purity monitor (XPM) had been operational and had tested candidate construction materials for compatibility until a refrigerator failure in October required repairs that were to start the third week of February, since all replacement parts are in hand. Once the repair is completed, micro-coax from IHEP in China is the next prospective material for testing.

SLAC continues involvement in the nEXO simulation effort, including selection and commissioning of an appropriate software framework. The simulation effort for the outer detector of nEXO is being finalized to define a choice for the water shielding design. A paper is in preparation describing the design of the outer detector and the physics goals of such a detector, with Kaufman as main contributing author. Mong is contributing to the coding effort of required geometry updates into the simulation of the TPC and external systems while Kaufman is overseeing implementation and testing of new software packages useful for the overall software effort. Both Mong and Kaufman are involved in the production of a new paper summarizing the projected physics sensitivity of nEXO. Kaufman is also Level 3 manager of the software infrastructure for the proposed nEXO project.

FUSION ENERGY SCIENCES (FES)

SLAC achieved high-profile scientific results and technology advances that meet the FES mission of expanding the fundamental understanding of matter at very high temperatures and densities and building the scientific foundation needed to develop fusion energy. The high-energy density (HED) physics program has realized major advances in experiments that investigate the physical properties of matter in extreme conditions. Recent experiments have taken advantage of LCLS’s unique capabilities, including high-repetition-rate pump-probe studies, high-energy X-ray probing, and high spectral resolution measurements of plasmons and ion acoustic waves. These studies test our ab initio modeling codes and regimes important for laser fusion studies and provide insights into the structure and properties of astrophysical objects. Recent experiments have further demonstrated probing on the atomic scale, providing structural dynamics of materials exposed to high radiation and high-pressure environments. The HED program targets the use of the unique capabilities at SLAC, notably LCLS, as well as UED and, in the future, LCLS‐II, and is also a user of facilities provided through LaserNetUS. The HED program is developing state-of-the art diagnostics, targets, and high-intensity laser-matter experiments to advance the field. During this year, the program was strongly engaged with the APS DPP community planning process and the Brightest Light Initiative and their respective reports.

Key science issues underlying the research program include studying what determines the acceleration of particles in plasmas that produce very high particle energies. Answering this question is important for developing fusion plasma diagnostics, for understanding cosmic rays, and will provide opportunities to develop high-gradient accelerators for applications in research and medicine. In addition, the program explores ultrafast imaging and scattering techniques with X-ray and optical methods to test simulations of dense transient plasma states to advance fusion models. These experiments test predictions of particle-in-cell, density functional theory, and molecular dynamics simulations. During the past years, we added several components on advancing LCLS physics though two Early Career Awards (Gleason and Fiuza) and a Panofsky fellowship (McBride).

High Energy Density Science (HEDS)

Major progress on experiments at the Matter in Extreme Conditions (MEC) instrument at LCLS has demonstrated X-ray Thomson scattering measurements in laser heated targets. These experiments include the first femtosecond time-resolved measurements of short-pulse laser isochoric heating. The analysis of plasmon and Compton scattering features is expected to provide first-principle density and temperature measurements.



A major advance in experimental capabilities has provided the ultrafast response of short-pulse laser excited matter by combining diffraction and THz probing. The melt times have been studied with high accuracy and simultaneously provided the evolution of the DC conductivity during the heating, melt process, and transition into the warm dense matter state.

An experiment at LLNL’s Janus laser facility has further demonstrated terahertz spectroscopy and provided the first measurement of near-DC electrical conductivity of shock compressed matter.

Experiments on high-intensity short pulse lasers have produced ion and neutron beams with record peak brightness. These studies are important for the development of radiation sources for materials research, including direct ion knock-on studies and neutron damage.

Understanding the properties of warm dense matter continues to be the focus of HED’s research program. For this purpose, we have developed high spectral resolution scattering experiments and led new collaborative experiments at the European XFEL on ion acoustic waves, with the aim of preparing experiments on LCLS-II when 25 keV becomes available in 2020.

HED is continuing the development of high-repetition-rate experiments to improve the signal to noise from scattering and diffraction experiments. We have successfully fielded a novel 360 Hz pump-probe experiment on liquid jets at SLAC’s UED.

The HED theory program is successfully applying for time on U.S. supercomputers – 64 million core hours on Theta, 27 million core hours on CORI, and 50 million core hours on MIRA – to advance particle accelerators in laboratory experiments and on cosmic scales.

High-impact journal publications include: 1) Reconsidering X-ray plasmons [Nature Photonics 13, 751 (2019)]; 2) High-pressure melt curve and phase diagram of lithium [Phys. Rev. Lett. 123, 065701 (2019)]; 3) Visualization of ultrafast melting initiated from radiation-driven defects in solids [Science Adv. 5, 0392 (2019)]; 4) Measurements of the momentum-dependence of plasmonic excitations in matter around 1 Mbar using an X-ray free electron laser [Appl. Phys. Lett. 114, 014101 (2019)].

ADVANCED SCIENTIFIC COMPUTING RESEARCH (ASCR)

Quantum Information Science

A new program was awarded and funded for the development of edge-node technology for quantum networks. Our aim is to develop the technological components to enable an integrated platform that couples discrete sources of information to fiber coupled networks over tunable telecom wavelengths. Our initial investigations are focused on addressability and tunability of SiC color center defects [White at al., (CLEO 2020) and Guidry et al., APS March Meeting 2020] and mechanical-optical transduction of mm-wave signals [Gruenke et al., APS March Meeting 2020] for coupling into lithium niobate on sapphire photonics.

SciDAC

The primary mission of SLAC’s Computer Science Division is to address large-scale data analysis and simulation, both of which are topics of significant and increasing importance to SLAC and DOE. The Division is engaged with LCLS-II on the ExaFel project and also on discussions of future computing plans for both LCLS-II and the lab more generally. The core of the group's work continues to center on Legion, a task-based parallel programming system developed at Stanford and now under active development as an open source project at Stanford, SLAC, Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), and NVIDIA.

One of the difficulties of distributed programming is the need to partition data across the machine, not only for performance (so that multiple computers can operate on the data in parallel) but often just so that the data can fit, as no single machine may have sufficient memory to hold the entire data set. The decision about how to partition the data can have a major impact on performance, but in essentially all programming systems – except Legion – partitioning decisions must be made early when the code is first written. A unique feature of Legion is that it is possible to make partitioning decisions late, after the program is written, without significant modifications. This design allows for partitioning strategies to be adjusted or radically changed in light of what is learned from performance measurements, and we have previously exploited the ability to search a space of possible partitionings automatically in FlexFlow, a machine learning framework based on Legion that is used for large scale training by DOE and industry. This year we demonstrated that this automatic search for partitioning strategies could be done in general, not just for the very stylized and regular workloads that appear in current deep learning applications. The basic approach is to represent the space of possible partitions of the data as constraints; in particular, when there are multiple collections that must be partitioned, the constraints capture the copartitioning relationships between different collections needed for correct program execution. A constraint solver can then effectively search the space of solutions to the constraints for one with low cost, which corresponds to high performance. A paper on this work appeared at Supercomputing 2019.

In conjunction with Stanford faculty and students, we also continued our work on accelerating deep learning training and inference for problems that require supercomputer-scale resources. Graph neural networks are a relatively recent development in deep learning, where samples are graphs instead of images, for instance. In particular, these graphs can be extremely large, to the point



that even a single sample does not fit in the memory of an accelerator such as a GPU. However, existing machine learning frameworks other than FlexFlow cannot partition samples, and as a result graph neural networks are currently trained by downsampling the graph. Using FlexFlow’s much more flexible partitioning model as well as other underlying features of Legion, we were able to train large graph neural network problems using all of the data by partitioning samples across multiple devices in multiple dimensions. This work achieved order of magnitude speedups in the time to train graph neural networks as well as improvements in the final models, showing that the downsampling approach is not only slower, but also fails to fully exploit the available data. A paper on this work has been accepted by MLSys 2020.

BIOLOGICAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH (BER)

SLAC achieved high-profile scientific results and technology advances that support the BER science portfolio of fundamental research and technology development to achieve a predictive systems-level understanding of complex biological and environmental systems. The following provides examples of recent impactful science results and technology advances and references associated publications.

A research area involving scientists in the Biological Sciences Division (BSD) at SSRL examines how molecular and cellular adaptations of ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) can enable metabolic function under extremely limited nutrient availability. The aim is to understand the environmental determinants of these ubiquitous ammonia-oxidizing organisms and their role in the control of global nitrogen and carbon cycles. The studies apply a multi-scale, integrative, computational molecular biology approach to link (meta) genomics to molecular and cellular processes and ecosystems of specific N-cycling enzymes. Initial findings on surface layer proteins were published in FY18 [ISME J. 12, 2389 (2018)]. This study has been expanded to probe the role of the nanoporous cellular envelope of AOA to explain their remarkable efficiency. The simulations are aimed at understanding how the molecular organization of the AOA cell envelope contributes to concentrating the microbe’s sole energy source at the ammonia-oxidation site of the cell, enabling them to occupy ecological niches. It has so far been established that the nanopores behave like nanofluidic ionic field effect transistors (iFET). Surface layer charge, nutrient concentration, and enzymatic rate are finely tuned to optimize the metabolic efficiency of these organisms. A manuscript has been published [J. Phys. Chem. B, 123, 10331 (2019)].

SSRL Biosciences researchers have initiated an integrative experimental/computational study of environmental stress adaptation in plants and microorganisms. Engineering efficient and sustainable feedstock, energy crops, and yeasts requires understanding of the structural genomics and systems biology of gene product regulation under various environmental stresses. Multi-stress tolerant yeasts relevant to the BER bioenergy and bioproducts programs display complex interplays of genome, proteome, and structural and morphological changes under different stress conditions. Understanding energy crops’ defense mechanisms against, and cohabitation with, various microorganisms poses significant scientific and translational challenges. SLAC plans to address these questions by using its X-ray, cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), cryoFIB/SEM/ET and new quantum science enabled optical imaging capabilities. These capabilities will be integrated with genomic, proteomic, and metabolomic analyses in collaboration with Professor Mary Beth Mudgett of the Stanford Biology Department, with expertise in energy crops immune systems, and the Joint Genome Institute (JGI), which will provide expertise in multi-stress tolerance and plant-microbe intercations. The National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST’s) Joint Initiative for Metrology in Biology (JIMB) at SSRL contributes the unique capability of double bar-code technology for mapping relevant molecular pathways through vast protein-protein interaction networks, which complements the expertise at DOE JGI, and enables a molecular-to-systems level understanding of complex processes of environmental adaptations.

In collaboration with W.E. Moerner and Lucy Shapiro of Stanford, and John Smit of the University of British Columbia, BSD staff studied how bacteria assemble their surface layer (S-layer), which is a crystalline protein shell surrounding many microbes. The work showed that continuous protein crystallization alone controls S-layer assembly in Caulobacter crescentus, using the shape of the cell to localize its assembly. By watching the S-layer assemble on the surface of living cells using super-resolution fluorescence microscopy and single molecule tracking techniques, the team elucidated the native S-layer production and reconstitution process using purified protein in vivo [Nat. Commun. 10, 2731 (2019)]. Complementary X-ray and cryo-EM studies have shown how the S-layer proteins assemble and form crystalline, yet flexible, 2D lattices in vitro as a function of ambient calcium concentration at the atomic to meso scales [manuscript in review, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 117, 388 (2020)]. Our in vivo and in vitro findings establish a generalizable mechanism by which microbes can assemble and maintain a proteinaceous surface without localized regulation or feedback from the cell interior. The work will have broad implications to research areas such as synthetic biology, biofuels, and biotechnology applications in which understanding assembly mechanisms across wide branches of the evolutional tree play important roles in engineering S-layer proteins to control their assembly and functionalities. This has led to a new collaborative project on protein-based calcium-responsive hydrogel using the calcium-binding motifs of the C. crescentus S-layer protein in collaboration with Professor Danielle Mai of Stanford Chemical Engineering.



In collaboration with the JGI Synthetic Biology Group, Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, and Stanford’s ChEM-H Institute and Department of Earth System Science, BSD staff solved high-resolution structures of archaeal CO2 fixing enoyl-CoA carboxylase enzymes. The structural and functional analyses using SSRL and SACLA (Japan) have shown strongly coupled catalytic domain motions that are critically important for these enzymes to achieve 20 times faster CO2 fixation than RuBisCO, the most naturally abundant key CO2-fixing plant enzyme. The interface between the two catalytic domains is conserved among the enzymes involved in the primary metabolic pathways, but not in the secondary pathways, indicating an evolutionary development of these enzymes to acquire such a remarkable CO2 fixation rate [Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 116, 13964 (2019)]. This work has been extended to a second set of carbon cycling enzymes. AOA has been shown to possess the most energy-efficient CO2 fixing cycle, referred to as a modified HP/HB cycle. The collaborative team has launched a systematic structure-function study of this cycle. To date, two enzyme structures [4-hydroxybutyryl-CoA dehydratase (4HBD)] and [3-hydroxypropionyl-CoA dehydratase (3HPD)] have been solved, and two of the three subunits of the key CO2 fixing enzyme complex – acetyl-CoA carboxylase – have been crystallized with high-resolution data recently obtained. The 4HBD structure work has led to a discovery of a coevolution strategy of the enzyme from oxygen-sensitive bacterial enzymes to oxygen-tolerant archaeal counter parts through concurrent mutations of residues blocking the two oxygen tunnels connecting the [4Fe-4S] cluster and the exterior.

In continued collaboration with Mark Wilson (Nebraska Redox Biology Center at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln), SSRL staff is examining the role of enzymes in the healthy soil microbiome. Isocyanide hydratase (ICH) hydrates diverse isocyanides to yield N-formamides and was isolated from pseudomonad bacteria that populate competitive microbial niches. ICH is one of only two enzyme classes characterized to date that degrade organic isocyanides, and both are abundant in – and unique to – the soil microbiome. Isocyanides frequently possess antimicrobial properties and are synthesized by microbes to kill competing species. Catalytic intermediates of ICH were studied with data sets at several time points in mix-and-inject structural enzymology experiments enabled by UV-Vis microspectrophotometry developed at SSRL BL9-2 to characterize reaction timing and serial crystallography developments at SSRL BL12-2 and LCLS MFX to characterize the reaction mechanisms. An integrated experimental/computer simulation approach demonstrated, for the first time, how an on-pathway covalent intermediate reorganizes the functionally relevant conformational dynamics of any enzyme [Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 116, 25634 (2019)]. The next stage of this collaboration is to study a homolog of ICH from Ralstonia solanacearum (RsICH) that is ~1000x faster than PfICH and that forms crystals that diffract to 0.74 Å resolution. As part of this work, this new homolog of ICH will be examined using mix-and-inject serial crystallography methods at LCLS-MFX and pink-beam serial methods at SSRL BL12-1 to collect data at various points along the reaction coordinate with ~10-100 ms time resolution. Atomic resolution bond length analysis will be applied to determine the protonation state of the presumed active site catalytic acid/base (Asps17) as the reaction proceeds.

Uranium is a toxic element that occurs naturally in shallow aquifers and also presents a large and persistent shallow contamination problem at U.S. DOE sites. Persistent uranium accumulates in sediments as tetravalent U [U(IV)], a form once considered largely immobile. Recent studies show that commonly occurring – but poorly understood – forms of U(IV) are released back into groundwater under changing hydrologic and geochemical conditions. There is growing belief that natural organics in sediments (mineral coatings and fine particles of detrital plant matter) are a major sink that binds and re-releases U(IV), mediating its fate in the subsurface. However, no studies have unambiguously characterized the molecular-scale relationship between U organic matter and minerals in natural sediments. Researcher Sharon Bone (SSRL), supported by the BER-funded SSRL/SLAC Groundwater Quality Science Focus Area (SFA), combined X-ray absorption spectroscopy (at SSRL) with nano-secondary ion mass spectrometry (at Environmental Molecular Science Laboratory, EMSL) and scanning transmission X-ray microscopy (at LCLS) with a density-based fractionation approach to physically and microscopically isolate organic and mineral matter from alluvial sediments contaminated with uranium that were obtained from the DOE Riverton, WY research site. This work significantly altered our understanding of U(IV) behavior by identifying two distinct populations of complexed U: (i) U adsorbed to organic matter (including particles rich in both carboxylate and phenolic functional groups), and (ii) U adsorbed to organic-clay aggregates. This is the first study to demonstrate unambiguously a major role for organic matter as a U(IV) sorbent in unaltered sediments from an alluvial aquifer. This work provides a new framework to understand U mobility in the shallow subsurface, and, in particular, emphasizes roles for desorption and organic colloids in its mobilization [S. Bone, et al., Environ. Sci. Technol. 54, 1493 (2020)].

Colloids mediate the mobility of nutrients, metals, and radionuclides in sediments that experience strong wet-dry cycling, and thus impact groundwater quality. Sulfidation of Fe(III)-oxyhydroxide nanoparticles has been proposed to generate sulfidic colloids. Their chemical composition, structure, and the parameters controlling their formation are not well understood, but this information is needed to develop models to simulate their behavior and biogeochemical function in groundwater. SSRL researchers from the SSRL/SLAC SBR SFA have conducted a suite of ferrihydrite – a common and reactive natural Fe(III) oxyhydroxide mineral – sulfidation experiments to determine if the reducing processes dominant in natural conditions could generate stable colloids and thus enhance the mobility of contaminants and nutrients associated with them. The SSRL synchrotron-based X-ray absorption spectroscopy studies showed that reductive dissolution of



ferrihydrite by aqueous sulfide generates nanometer-size FeS clusters. Their subsequent aggregation, which promotes settling of FeS aggregates into the solid fraction, was directly correlated with sulfide/Fe ratio. At sulfide/Fe ratios ≤0.5, FeS clusters and larger colloids remained in suspension for at least 14 days (and up to several months), whereas that at sulfide/Fe ratios >0.5, sulfidation reaction rates were rapid and FeS cluster aggregation was accelerated. Moreover, the presence of organic compounds increased the time of suspension of FeS colloids. This study provides for the first time a conceptual process model to predict when and where FeS colloids can form and enhance or inhibit the mobility of contaminants and nutrients associated with them [V. Noël, et al., Environ. Sci. Technol., in review].

WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT FOR TEACHERS AND SCIENTISTS (WDTS)

SLAC achieved results that support the WDTS mission of ensuring that DOE and the U.S. have a sustained pipeline of highly skilled and diverse science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workers, which includes supporting undergraduate internships and nation-wide science competitions such as Science Bowl. The following provides examples of recent impactful results.

Science Bowl

SLAC sponsored the 2020 Regional DOE Science Bowl, an academic competition using a fast-paced question-and-answer format that tests the knowledge of middle and high school students in a broad range of science disciplines such as biology, chemistry, earth sciences, physics, energy, and math. Winning teams qualify to compete in the DOE National Science Bowl in Washington, D.C. in May.

On February 8, 2020, SLAC hosted 28 high school teams – five of which participated for the first time – for the regional high school Science Bowl. The circa 140 students, their coaches, and 60 volunteers represented a diversity of backgrounds frp, cities within San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, San Francisco, and Marin counties. SLAC offered facility tours for students and coaches during the event.

On February 22, 2020, SLAC hosted the competition venue for the South/West Bay Area Regional Middle School Science Bowl. Twenty 20 middle school teams participated, with about 100 students and 20 volunteers in attendance.

SLAC has sponsored the Regional Science Bowl since 2004, and continues to support this program to encourage local students to excel in science and math and pursue careers in these fields. Many past competitors have gone on to post-graduate studies, have thriving careers in STEM, and have returned to this annual SLAC event to serve as moderators and science judges. SLAC plans to host the Regional Science Bowl in February 2021.

Symmetry

Symmetry is an online publication about particle physics and astrophysics produced at SLAC in partnership with Fermilab. It speaks to diverse audiences with the overall goals of supporting and enabling U.S. and international particle physics and astrophysics research. Symmetry averages two new articles per week, and in 2019 garnered more than 1.7 million page views by more than 950,000 readers – about half of them from the U.S.

Symmetry invites readers into the world of particle physics and introduces them to the people involved. It works to amaze, inform, educate, and delight. Symmetry explains foundational concepts in particle physics; covers particle physics news, including high-priority results and milestones; explains different aspects of the scientific process; shows the applications and benefits of particle physics, including the training of students; highlights the international nature of the field; highlights efforts to promote diversity and inclusion in the field; and explains the future planning process.

In 2019 Symmetry published a series of 12 articles related to particle physics and astrophysics in Latin America, with the purpose of encouraging increased collaboration between physicists in the U.S. and Latin America. Each article—made available in English, Spanish and Portuguese—received between 1,000 and 3,500 pageviews, and the series more than doubled Symmetry readership across Latin America compared to previous years. In response to a survey, physicists interviewed for the series reported receiving positive feedback from scientists and other readers across Latin America. At least one institution reached out with an interest in scientific collaboration.

SAGE-S Student Program for Young Women

SLAC held its second annual week-long summer camp for high school students titled SAGE-S (SLAC Accelerating Girls’ Engagement in STEM). SLAC scientists and engineers shared what everyday life is like in STEM professions at a national laboratory. The camp engaged over 150 volunteers from SLAC, who focused on encouraging college-bound girls to become a part of the STEM community by showing that STEM fields offer a diverse set of opportunities to explore interests in history, creative writing, communications, and art in parallel with practicing logical thinking, analytic skills, and computational ability. Students shadowed STEM professionals and attended technical talks, and had an opportunity to engage in hands-on projects such as building an electrostatic particle accelerator, studying superconductivity, and exploring laser diffraction for measurements. They met women in STEM at various stages of their careers, from undergraduates and



graduates, to early career, and women in mid-to-senior management. In 2019, the program doubled in size, with 40 young women attending from 27 schools across Northern California.

Thus far the SAGE-S program graduated 60 students; 35 of whom have or are graduating high school. About 90% chose a STEM major for their undergraduate studies, which is a sign of success because SAGE-S students are selected based on having limited exposure and interest in STEM fields prior to attending the program. In 2020, the SAGE-S summer program is expanding to LBNL, which plans to host 20 students. SLAC will host the same number of students as last year – 40. Other national laboratories may adopt this model as a SAGE Path program develops into an opportunity for a more diverse STEM workforce in the national laboratory system.

Elements in Support of 1.2 – Quality Leadership in Science and Technology that Advances Program Goals The following provides examples of innovative or novel ideas that advance DOE program goals, collaborations with other DOE laboratories and facilities, leadership in the scientific community or within DOE, and SLAC contributions to peer reviews and other research assessments as requested.


SLAC Staff Leadership, Recognition, Honors and Awards

SSRL

Aina Cohen was awarded the 2019 Farrel W. Lytle Award.

Donghui Lu became an APS fellow, 2019.

Mike Toney became an APS fellow, 2019.

Hans-Georg Steinrück received the 2019 Spicer Award for energy storage research.

Simon Bare chairs the Science Advisory Committee of the ORNL Physical Sciences Directorate.

John Bargar is a member of DOE-FE HQ oil and natural gas leadership adviser team.

Xiaobiao Huang is on the APS/APS-U Machine Advisory Committee.

Ingolf Lindau chairs the Elettra Science Advisory Council and the Photon Factory Science Advisory Committee.

Apurva Mehta is organizer of the ML session at the Denver X-ray Conference.

Piero Pianetta chairs the Experimental Systems Advisory Committee for the APS-U project and is an ex-officio member of the APS Scientific Advisory Committee.

James Sebek chaired the APS RF Upgrade Review committee.

Thomas Rabedeau is a member of the ALS-U ESAC and the APS-U ESAC.

Mike Toney serves on the APS and CNMS (ORNL) Scientific Advisory Committees; the International Advisory Committee for CiNe – Center for Innovation on New Energies in Campinas, Brazil; the NSF graduate research fellowship selection committee; the directorate for the JCESR energy storage hub, and is a member of Center for Electrochemical Energy Storage, Energy Frontier Research Center (EFRC) external advisory board (EAB).

Energy Sciences

Phil Bucksbaum received the Ramsey Prize in Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics, 2020.

Todd Martinez was elected to the National Academy of Sciences, 2019.

Tony Heinz was listed as a Clarivate Citation Laureate in Physics, 2019.

Phil Bucksbaum will serve as president of the American Physical Society (APS) in 2020.

Tony Heinz serves on three scientific advisory committees: The Center for Computational Study of Excited-Stated Phenomena in Energy Materials, LBNL, 2017-2020; CATS EFRC, the Center for the Advancement of Topological Semimetals, Ames Laboratory, 2018-2021; and NPQC EFRC, the Center for Novel Pathways to Quantum Coherence in Materials, 2018-2021.

Kelly Gaffney is on BES Council for Chemical Sciences, Geosciences and Biosciences and is the panel chair on the Committee of Visitors, 2018-present; the Advanced Photon Source Scientific Advisory Committee, 2020-2022; chairs the Center for Scalable Predictive Methods for Excitations and Correlated Phenomena Scientific Advisory Committee.



David Reis is vice-chair of the executive committee of the Division of Laser Science at the APS.

Steve Eglash is on the governance board of the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research (JCESR).

Accelerator Directorate

2019 FEL prize, Young Scientist FEL award: Joe Duris (SLAC) for his contribution to the study of high-efficiency energy transfer in tapered FELs and inverse FELs, and for his role in the first demonstration of attosecond pulses from a current-enhanced X-ray FEL.

2019 FEL prize: Gennady Stupakov (SLAC) for his invention of Echo-Enabled Harmonic Generation (EEHG) external seeding scheme as well as his numerous contributions to CSR and wakefield effects in high-brightness accelerators.




Dr. Spencer Gessner was awarded the Simon van der Meer Early Career Award in Novel Accelerators at the 4th European Advanced Accelerator Concepts (EAAC) Workshop.

Technology Innovation

Michael Fazio chaired the Basic Research Needs Workshop on Compact Accelerators for National Security and Medicine. Craig Burkhart, Mark Kemp, Aaron Tremaine, and Sami Tantawi also served.

Emilio Nanni (Chair) and Sami Tantawi (co-Chair) are serving on the local organizing committee for the 2020 International Workshop on Breakdown Science and High Gradient Technology (HG2020).

Fundamental Sciences

JoAnne Hewett serves as chair of HEPAP, and serves on the LSST management board.

Norbert Holtkamp chairs the Machine Advisory Committee (MAC) and the cost/schedule review for CERN and the LHC upgrade project.

Steven Kahn serves as Vera C. Rubin Observatory LSST director, was a member of both the CMS and ATLAS upgrade NSF review teams, chaired a major review of all physics programs in Israel, and is currently chairing the Electromagnetic Observations from Space -2 Panel of the National Academy of Sciences Decadal Survey in Astronomy and Astrophysics (Astro2020).

Kent Irwin serves on HEPAP.

Natalia Toro serves on the DPF executive committee as member-at-large, was the panel lead for the Basic Research Needs Workshop on Dark Matter New Initiatives, and serves on the DOE Comparative Review Panel for Particle Theory.

Alexander Friedland and Hirohisa Tanaka serve on the Fermilab Program Advisory Committee, with Professor Tanaka chairing the committee.

David MacFarlane chairs the DESC IRC and IFC for the FGST. He also chaired the formal French government review (HCERES) of the CNRS Orsay valley laboratories and was a member of the search committee for the lab director for the merged Orsay laboratories.

Bill Wisniewski serves on LHC Experiments Committee (LHCC).

Lance Dixon serves as the vice-chair of the KITP Advisory Board and chair of the TASI Scientific Advisory Board.

Phil Marshall served on the Astronomy and Astrophysics Advisory Committee (AAAC) subcommittee on the evolving roles of the Gemini, Blanco, and SOAR telescopes, and was a member of the search committee for the director of Science Operations Services position at NSF’s OIR Lab.

Mike Huffer served on CERN Upgrade Cost Group (UCG).

Michael Peskin authored the physics textbook Concepts of Elementary Particle Physics, Oxford University Press, 2019.

Dan Akerib serves on the SNOLAB Science and Technology Review Committee and LSST AURA Management Council for the Rubin Observatory (AMCR).

Risa Wechsler chaired the KITP Advisory Board, is a member of the LSST Science Advisory Committee and is a general member of the Aspen Center for Physics.



Michael Kagan received a DOE Early Career Award for study of the Higgs sector with bottom quarks, machine learning, and for ATLAS pixel detector upgrade.

ATLAS Leadership Roles

Philippe Grenier recently finished his term as deputy project leader at the ATLAS HL-LHC pixel detector, and he continues as the Level 2 manager, U.S. ATLAS HL-LHC pixel detector. Caterina Vernieri is the Level 3 manager for integration, and Su Dong is responsible for services. Ariel Schwartzman is co-convener of the ATLAS high granularity timing detector (HGTD) physics and performance group, member of the ATLAS HGTD management committee, and co-editor of the HGTD technical proposal. Martin Kocian’s appointment as ATLAS pixel project leader has been extended for another term, and he is currently also the ATLAS inner detector project leader. Valentina Cairo is the convener of the ATLAS vertexing group. Caterina Vernieri is the leader of the ATLAS di-Higgs task force.

Neutrino Experiments Leadership Roles

ICARUS: Yun-Tse Tsai is DAQ co-convener and Tracy Usher is software co-convener.

SBN: Yun-Tse Tsai is shower reconstruction co-convener and Tracy Usher is tracking algorithms co-convener.

DUNE: Mark Convery is 35-ton prototype co-coordinator; Matt Graham is DAQ hardware group co-leader. Hirohisa Tanaka is co-convener of the near detector design group. Kazuhiro Terao is leading the LAr software effort for the DUNE near detector. Yun-Tse Tsai is co-convener of the High Energy Working Group on DUNE.

EXO-200: Martin Breidenbach was operations manager and has retired. Brian Mong oversaw the final shutdown at WIPP and the shipment to SLAC. L. Kaufman and B. Mong are overseeing the distribution of decommissioned equipment.

Dark Matter Experiments Leadership Roles

FGST: Richard Dubois serves as the FGST-LAT computing coordinator and Robert Cameron is the manager of the FGST-LAT Instrument Science Operations Center.

HPS: Timothy Nelson serves as co-spokesperson of the HPS collaboration and leader of the SVT subproject. Mathew Graham leads the Data Analysis Working Group. Norman Graf leads the Track Reconstruction Group. Omar Moreno serves on the executive committee.

LDMX: Timothy Nelson serves as co-spokesperson of the LDMX collaboration, and leads the tracking and beamline subprojects. Philip Schuster co-leads physics coordination for LDMX. Omar Moreno leads the software and computing subproject.

LZ: Alden Fan and Christina Ignarra are serving as co-convenors of the Low-energy Nuclear Recoils Working Group, which is preparing the analysis for the primary WIMP search in the first science run. Maria Elena Monzani has been appointed deputy operations manager for LZ and is a member of the Operations Office. Tomasz Biesiadzinski has been appointed as the Level 2 manager for LZ detector operations. Tom Shutt is Level 2 manager for the LZ Xe detector system.

SuperCDMS SNOLAB: Paul Brink was elected as a member of the SuperCDMS Executive Committee. Robert Cameron is the SuperCDMS SNOLAB operations manager; Ken Fouts served as the SuperCDMS SNOLAB project manager, now replaced by Tiffany Tran; David MacFarlane serves as the SuperCDMS SNOLAB project director; and Richard Partridge serves as SuperCDMS SNOLAB deputy project manager and Level 2 manager for the detector towers. Ken Fouts is now the project engineer. Tina Cartaro is the Level 2 manager for computing and software in SuperCDMS operations and Tsuguo Aramaki is the technical coordinator for detectors in SuperCDMS operations.

Dark Energy Experiments Leadership Roles

DES: David Burke serves on the DES Management Committee and chairs the DES External Collaborator Review Committee, and Risa Wechsler serves on the DES Science Committee and co-chairs the Simulations Working Group.

LSST: Steven Kahn is the Rubin Observatory director. Richard Dubois serves as the LSST DESC operations manager; Philip Marshall serves as deputy director of Rubin Observatory (LSST Facility) operations at SLAC; Seth Digel is deputy operations manager and chair of the DESC Publications Board; Aaron Roodman is the LSST camera integration and test scientist; Stuart Marshall is the LSST camera operations scientist; Tony Johnson is the LSST camera control system scientist; Andy Rasmussen is the LSST camera instrument scientist; Rafe Schindler is the LSST camera refrigeration scientist; Kevin Reil is the LSST commissioning manager and scientist and deputy manager of the LSST camera integration and test team.

SLAC scientists served on numerous conference advisory and organization committees as well as advisory boards and review or editorial committees.



SLAC scientists have initiated innovative ideas that advance HEP program goals:

Hirohisa Tanaka is performing R&D on a modularized ArgonCube concept for the LAr TPC for the DUNE near detector. SLAC is now engaged in two innovative aspects of this design, including a field cage using high resistivity polyimide foils and a high-voltage feedthrough using resistive polymers, in addition to the overall design and integration of the TPC. The first high voltage cable was successfully delivered to the University of Bern to be included in the first large-scale prototype module. Extensive studies of the electrical properties of the high resistivity polyimide film have been performed, and the first field cages for the prototype modules are under construction.

SLAC scientists have continued to develop the Light Dark Matter eXperiment and lead a consortium proposal for funding under the Dark Matter New Initiatives call to develop the experiment to a full technical design. SLAC scientists continue to take on leading roles in physics studies in order to develop concepts for reaching the ultimate sensitivity of the experiment, as well as exploring the capability of LDMX to make measurements of electron-nuclear scattering of importance to the science goals of the U.S. neutrino program.

SLAC scientists have continued to develop the dark matter radio and lead a proposal for funding under the Dark Matter New Initiatives call to develop the magnet for the experiment. The experiment will have the capability to reach the QCD axion band in the kHz to MHz region employing quantum sensors.

Particle Theory Leadership Roles

Lance Dixon serves as an editor for JHEP, and is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for the Max Planck Institute in Munich, the International Advisory Committee for Amplitudes 2020 at the University of Michigan, and LoopFest 2020 at the University of Pittsburgh.

Thomas Rizzo continues as the chair of the SLAC Summer Institute organizing committee, and is a member of the organizing committee for the Burt Richter Symposium and the West Coast LHC Jaboree Workshop organizing committee.

Michael Peskin is a member of the program committee for the 2020 Workshop on Future Electron-Positron Colliders and the advisory board for the Munich Institute for Astro- and Particle Physics (MIAPP), and currently serves on the board of directors and editorial committee for Annual Reviews of Nuclear and Particle Science. He also served as the chair of the External Review committee for Physical Review.

D. Philip Schuster serves as a member of the scientific organizing committee for FIPS2020 at CERN.

Alex Friedland was chair of the organizing committee for PINS2019 Workshop at SLAC.


SLAC Staff Leadership, Recognition, Honors, and Awards

Siegfried Glenzer received an honorary doctorate from Universität Rostock, Germany and is a member of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) red team, with the charge of preparing the 2020 review of the science-based stockpile stewardship strategy. He chaired the 2019 MEC user workshop on high-power lasers (HPL-7) and co-chaired the “Brightest Light Initiative” workshop in March 2019.

Luke Fletcher chairs the Jupiter Laser Facility (JLF) Executive Committee and co-organized the 2020 JLF/NIF Users Group Meeting.

Arianna Gleason received a DOE Early Career Award.

Nuclear Physics (NP)

SLAC scientists hold the following key leadership positions:

Norbert Holtkamp is a member of the International Advisory Committee for RISP in South Korea.



SSRL

Wah Chiu is on the scientific advisory boards of Biozentrum, Universität Basel, Basel, Switzerland; Integrated Structural Biology Infrastructure for Europe (INSTRUCT), Oxford University, United Kingdom; Institute of Molecular Biology, Academia Sinica, Taiwan; RCSB Protein Data Bank, Rutgers University; BioXFEL Center, University of Buffalo; and Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory.



Aina Cohen is a member of the U.S. National Committee for Crystallography, National Academy of Sciences, a board member of the Pittsburgh Diffraction Society, and a member of the advisory board of the NSF BioXFEL Center.

Britt Hedman served on the International Review Panel, MAX-IV Synchrotron Facility, Lund, Sweden, Swedish Research Council and is a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee for ANSTO, Australian Synchrotron, Melbourne, Australia.

Ritimukta Sarangi is a member of the Science Advisory Committee for EMSL.

Soichi Wakatsuki chairs the SOLEIL Science Advisory Committee and is a member of the NSLS-II Science Advisory Committee, the Neutron Advisory Board of ORNL, the advisory board of the NSF BioXFEL Center, and the RIKEN BDR (Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research) Advisory Council.

Sam Webb is the Recipient of the Jean d'Alembert Chairé visiting researcher at Université Paris-Saclay (2018-2019).

SSRL BER scientists have been creating instrumentation and methodologies that are foundational to program components in FWPs, and that serve the science community, and they are instrumental in creating partnerships with scientists at other DOE facilities.

SLAC seeks to deliver the highest-impact science through research conducted by individuals and small teams of investigators, in partnership with other BER supported resources like EMSL and JGI as well as Stanford PIs, and through advancing and making available its imaging tools – using X-rays, electrons, and advanced integrative methodologies – to the broader scientific user community. Such tools are key in addressing multi-scale spatiotemporal phenomena important in areas of BER’s mission that include redesigning microbes and plants for sustainable biofuel production and finding ways to improve carbon sequestration and storage. To this end, SLAC and Stanford have together built a significant imaging program for biology, with a science portfolio that will enhance the ability to meet DOE-BER mission needs. This includes full operation of the SLAC-Stanford Cryo-EM Facilities which is a key element in SLAC’s bioimaging strategy, which also includes imaging and non-imaging X-ray techniques, including crystallography, small-angle scattering, X-ray fluorescence imaging, and spectroscopy.

The BER-funded FWP “Cryo-Electron Microscopy and Tomography for Frozen, Hydrated Biological Samples” was awarded late in FY18 with Wah Chiu as PI. It has enabled the procurement and implementation of cryo-FIB-SEM instrumentation to augment the existing cryo-EM facility and capabilities, and the pursuit of several biological development projects that are of direct relevance to BER’s mission. An initial research project will focus on using a multi-modal imaging approach to discover how plants and fungi organize their cell walls for growth and respond dynamically to environmental conditions such as hydration, salinity, and interactions with various microorganisms. It will synergistically use synchrotron X-ray tomography and Cryo-EM/ET. The cryo-FIB-SEM instrumentation will be operational in 2020.

SLAC has proposed developing and delivering novel quantum-correlated imaging and unique quantum-entanglement enabled imaging technologies, and using them for studying real-time morphological and functional dynamics of multi-stress tolerant yeasts as well as plants, and specifically energy crops and microbiome interactions. This collaboration on quantum science enabled imaging systems includes Mark Kasevich of the Stanford Physics Department, and Michale Raymen, Brian Smith, and Andrew Marcus of the University of Oregon. Proof of principle experiments will be conducted in collaboration with Mary Beth Mudgett of the Stanford Biology Department, and Yasuo Yoshikuni, a researcher at LBNL and JGI. The joint team will optimize the design of these novel quantum science enabled imaging technologies into compact and robust imaging systems for use by the wider BER science community. A pre-proposal was submitted to BER in response to the invitation, and SLAC has been invited to submit a full proposal by early April 2020.

The SSRL Structural Molecular Biology (SMB) resource has initiated a DOE-BER focused outreach program to attract and expand the biological and environmental user community at the SMB beam lines. As part of this effort, SMB staff have started new collaborations with EMSL scientists to increase inter-laboratory scientific interactions. In a collaboration with Chris Anderton (EMSL), SSRL staff are investigating the growth of fungal hyphae in potassium-containing mineral media using microprobe chemical speciation studies at the potassium X-ray K-edge. These studies clearly demonstrate the uptake of mineral-based potassium by the hyphae and coversion to organic-ligand bound potassium. In a second collaboration with NWChem, researchers Niri Govind (EMSL) and SSRL staff have started a pilot project to theoretically interrogate tender XAS data (S-, P- and Ca K-edges) obtained using microprobe imaging experiments to gain mechanistic insights into biogeochemical processes.

SSRL staff scientists interact on a regular schedule with scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s (ORNL’s) Center for Structural Biology to identify and plan joint scientific projects, exchange scientific and technological ideas, and facilitate and coordinate the scientific user projects carried out at both facilities, such as the recently published work on the cadherin-catenin adhesion complex [M. Bush et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 116, 21545 (2019)]. These regular exchanges have also led to an ongoing collaboration between staff scientists at SSRL and ORNL studying the structural effects of thermochemical pretreatment in lingocellulose.



SSRL is collaborating with Karrie Weber (University of Nebraska) on a BER-funded grant, “Influx of Oxidants into Reduced Zones: Microbiological Controls Governing Metal Oxidation and Reduction.” This project is investigating the mechanisms by which influx of low concentrations of oxidants can trigger biogeochemical reducing reactions by liberating pools of Dissolved Organic Carbon (DOC).

SSRL is collaborating with Chris Francis (Stanford) on a BER-funded project, “Response of subsurface nitrogen-cycling microbial communities to environmental fluctuations.” This project identifies the impact of hydrological transients on microbial nitrogen cycling.

SSRL is collaborating with Kate Maher (Stanford) on a BER-funded project, “Development of a molecularly informed biogeochemical framework for reactive transport modeling of subsurface carbon inventories, transformations and fluxes.”

SSRL is collaborating with the LBNL ESS-DIVE, “Deep Insights for Earth Science Data” program. This project, funded by the Data Management program within the BER Climate and Environmental Science Division, is creating a new data archive for Earth and environmental science data. SSRL is helping to define new standards for metadata capture and sample classification.

S T A T U S O F N O T A B L E O U T C O M E ( S )

1. BES: Deliver impactful science to advance the integrated research objectives for the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis—as measured by the FY20 Progress Reports. (Objective 1.1)

Status: The strong theory-experiment collaboration within the JCAP supported activities at SLAC have made important progress on understanding what controls the selectivity for longer carbon chain products in the CO2 reduction reaction. This effort has led to the development of a new theoretical model better able to reproduce experimental findings. Importantly, our work explains the role of atomic carbon in directing electrochemical CO2RR to multi-carbon products.

S I G N I F I C A N T C O N C E R N S A N D M I T I G A T I O N S

Concern: The decrease in FY20 HEP research funding had the potential to impact the laboratory’s cosmic frontier science programs. Future reductions in FY20, if implemented, will directly impact staffing levels and likely eliminate programs across HEP.

o Mitigation: The Accelerator and Fundamental Physics Directorates took necessary actions to meet research budget reductions and align the laboratory’s budget with available funds while protecting our priority science programs. Elimination of programs will more likely be necessary with further reductions in research funding, and agreement with the HEP program office would have to be reached on determining priority.



GOAL 2: Provide for Efficient and Effective Design, Fabrication, Construction and Operations of Research Facilities


Elements in Support of 2.1 – Effective Facility/Project Designs (i.e., up to CD-2) Emerging SLAC facilities and projects embody novel and impactful technologies. SLAC provided high-quality scientific justification for proposed facilities, high-quality technical conceptual designs, and credible cost estimates, as well as leveraging existing facilities. The following summarizes notable SLAC projects in the design phase.

General Comments with respect to the COVID-19 “shelter in place” impact on construction projects

Towards the end of this performance period the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has just become visible and as we end the month of March, SLAC has ceased on site operation for staff and contractors except for essential functions. Within a week of SLAC’s curtailment, all partner labs and partner agencies are in the same condition. The impact on the construction projects at SLAC is not well understood, in particular for those projects beyond CD-3. The evaluation of the impact is underway, but will not be completely resolved until the full duration of the shelter in place directive is known. In the meantime, all subsystems and work areas are in a safe condition and restart planning has started.


LCLS-II-HE

The LCLS-II-HE project team prepared and held the DOE CD-3A and Status review on November 17-19, 2019. A final design package and $98M cost estimate for long-lead procurement of 18 production cryomodules was presented to the review committee. The committee offered 29 recommendations to the project and recommended proceeding to CD-3A.

An off-frequency detune method in SRF cavities for producing multi-energy CW electron beams in order to better support multiple undulator lines has been developed based on LCLS-II-HE parameters. Theoretical analysis provides an optimal solution for linac energy allocation to achieve the minimum energy overhead at any given energy pattern. For the two undulator lines in the LCLS-II-HE, three possible schemes have been investigated with applying this off-frequency detune method, which can be chosen based on the available frequency detune range. Implementing this method for LCLS-II-HE is under investigation (Z. Zhang, Y. Ding, C. Adolphsen, and T. Raubenheimer, Phys. Rev. Accel. Beams 22, 110702).

SSRL/LCLS Collaboration

The SSRL Beam Line Systems (BLS) Division continues to support the LCLS-II beamline program. This includes engineering and design responsibility for all uncooled K-B mirror systems, the photon beam transport collimators and associated burn-through monitors, the associated L2SI modifications of existing hardware, and the fabrication of the collimators. BLS engineers continue to provide technical consulting expertise to the L2SI design team as well as review support. Additionally, BLS protection systems engineering staff have been heavily involved in the LCLS-II personnel protection systems (PPS) development and installation.

SSRL

A major step in reducing the emittance of SPEAR3 from 10 to 6 nanometer-radians (nm-rad) was achieved by the completion of installation and start of commissioning of the new injection septum magnet in October 2019. Commissioning of the 6 nm-rad lattice for user operations is ongoing and will be completed once the installation of shielding and hardware is finished in the summer of 2020 to better contain electron beam losses. The second major accelerator project is design of a new transverse multi-bunch feedback kicker to replace the present kicker in SPEAR3, which is on loan from ALS. A design review of the new kicker was held in February 2020.

Beam line 17-2 – the energy sciences scattering beam line developed to address SLAC’s strategic needs in the areas of operando energy-related materials, catalysis, and time-resolved studies – was installed and beam line hardware commissioning has commenced. Along with the hard X-ray RIXS beam line (BL15-2), this is part of a larger strategy to ensure that beamlines with advanced capabilities are available to support APS users during the transition to APS-U.

The NNSA metrology facility consists of two beamlines covering the energy regions from 50eV to 30keV to support NNSA metrology programs at DOE’s national laboratories. The soft X-ray beam line (BL16-2) is operational with continued optics optimization. The hard X-ray beamline (BL16-1) was paused due to a funding lapse, but the construction has restarted.

The in-vacuum undulator microfocus beam line (BL12-1) will be used for macromolecular crystallography studies of microcrystals of complex systems, requiring high-brightness beams and capability for time-resolved studies. It has a direct link to parallel



developments at the LCLS MFX station for similar studies. Optics commissioning was completed at the start of the FY20 user run, and the beam line system is being prepared for user operations with full robotic automation.


The FACET-II project is in the installation phase, with user operations slated to begin in early 2020. Design work on upgrades for positron acceleration is underway.

SLAC developed a multi-purpose large-scale liquid noble test platform that was initially aimed at meeting LZ project goals. Development work for the DUNE near detector has now also begun at the test platform, with successful use of the LN thermosyphon cryogenics for LAr. Plans are underway to use the facility for development of LZ upgrades, including the proposed HydroX experiment, as well as for nEXO.

SLAC is contributing to the DUNE technical proposal with a new all-in-one solution for cold electronics. SLAC is developing an ASIC (named CRYO) to perform the front-end readout of LAr TPC wire signals. The first prototypes of the CRYO ASIC have undergone significant testing, and a second iteration of the design has been submitted for fabrication.

SLAC is contributing to the field cage design for the LAr component of the DUNE near detector, where it is leveraging its experience in high-voltage feedthroughs and electrical and mechanical design/construction from EXO and LZ. SLAC is also leading the overall mechanical design for prototypes of the detector (Skarpaas), and providing project management support for the overall DUNE near detector effort (Kurita).

SLAC led a re-optimization of the ATLAS HL-LHC inner pixel detector layout, resulting in a simple, cheaper, and more robust design with fewer detector elements while maintaining the same functionality.

SLAC developed a complete design and project implementation plan for the construction of the Sector 30 transfer line (S30XL) to deliver LCLS-II drive beam to End Station A. A DOE review of this project took place in January 2020. SLAC leads the LDMX consortium proposal to the Dark Matter New Initiatives call to develop the LDMX detector concept to a technical design ready for construction for operation in End Station A at SLAC using the LCLS-II drive beam and S30XL. SLAC physicists are spearheading proposals to utilize the S30XL for measurements of electron-nuclear scattering that are important to the science program of the long baseline neutrino experiments.

SLAC has nearly completed the setup of a new cryogenic test apparatus for prototype superconducting TES and SQUIDs for CMB-S4. SLAC has started construction of a detector microfabrication facility that will fabricate TES and SQUID sensors for CMB-S4 as well as develop superconducting sensors for quantum information science.

Nuclear Physics (NP)

SLAC performed R&D work on subsystems for the proposed nEXO detector as follows:

SLAC electrical engineering group designed a single integrated ASIC chip for liquid Xe charge collection to operate at cryogenic temperatures while meeting the noise requirements for nEXO; this work was performed in synergy with the DUNE detector cold electronics program. The DUNE prototype ASIC, with less stringent noise requirements and power dissipation performance, has completed initial cryotesting at LAr temps in the EXO lab in Building 84. This work continues, while the design of a nEXO-specific version (the main difference is in the front-end design) is now complete, with delivery expected in late February 2020. The physicist group has been testing to determine power dissipation issues and their mitigation in the SLAC EXO LXe test cell. The SLAC nanofab team designed a charge detection tile prototype. Fabrication will complete in early FY20, with testing planned in the Stanford campus LXe test cell. Work is starting on R&D for a radon control system for nEXO.


SLAC has been working closely with the program to develop an effective response to the National Academy of Sciences panel report on high intensity laser science. FES granted CD-0 in January 2019 for a petawatt laser facility as a national user facility for high energy density science and supplied funding to achieve CD-1 in FY20. SLAC has developed conceptual designs spanning a range of options for laser and experimental capability, scale of infrastructure, and long-term upgradability. A preferred option has emerged, integrating a high repetition (10 Hz) petawatt laser and a high-energy long pulse capability (200-1000 J) with an infrastructure that will ensure long-term preeminence. This has been enthusiastically received at various user community meetings, including the Brightest Light Initiative, at the APS DPP community planning process, and at workshops connected with long-term FES/APS strategic planning. Recently, there is strong interest from NNSA laboratories to enhance the long pulse laser to a multi-kilojoule capability.



Elements in Support of 2.2 – Effective and Efficient Construction of Facilities & Fabrication of Components (i.e., CD-3 to CD-4) SLAC successfully constructed facilities and components that adhered to requirements and met schedule and budget. SLAC also maintained effective, timely, and open communications with program sponsors regarding project progress. The following provides examples of SLAC performance for Goal 2.2.


LCLS-II (See related input in Goals 3.2 and 3.3 and in notable outcomes for 2.2 and 3.2.)

At the time of writing, the latest earned value data show the LCLS-II Project is 93% complete while the schedule and cost performance indices are respectively 0.97 and 0.97. Installation activities related to the copper linac (LCLS) restart was completed in February 2020. Nevertheless, the certification of the Personnel Protection System (PPS) is ongoing and delayed the begin of user operation substantially.

The delivery of cryoplant components is complete and cryoplant #1 commissioning is ongoing. Cryoplant 2 installation is 80% complete. . Installation of the injector beamline rafts is driving the critical path with installation of the last cryomodule and then the cryoplant commissioning following close.

Thirty-one cryomodules have been delivered to SLAC with 28 cryomodules are in place in the accelerator housing as of February 28, 2020. Interconnection welding is 55% complete and beamline vacuum connections have begun with 2 complete in February 2020. A third cryomodule testing facility has been set up at JLab. With guidance from JLab experts, SLAC personnel are operating 2 LCLS-II cryomodules in this facility with the full RF system, controls, and software that will be used for running the LCLS-II linac at SLAC.

All twenty-two soft X-ray undulators have been delivered to SLAC, calibrated and installed. All thirty-three hard X-ray undulators have been delivered. Twenty-two are installed and the rest will be installed during maintenance days in 2020). Cost contingency on work to go is 28.5% and has decreased by 3% in January 2020. There are emerging cost risks related to the cryo plant and injector that total $2.5M which put further degradation of contingency on work to go at risk. The project continues to manage contingency usage closely. There is ten months of schedule contingency remain to the level 1 CD-4 date, which leaves approximately 50% schedule contingency on remaining work.


LSST Camera Project

Construction efforts are 96.4% complete on the LSST camera project, and the project is on track for an expected conclusion by Q2FY21. All production science-grade sensors and science and corner raft towers have now been completed and installed in the cryostat. All the lenses have been successfully polished and coated, installed in their assemblies, and tested at the vendor, and have been shipped to SLAC. The first filter was coated in spring 2019 and test measurements are underway. All filter substrates have been completed. The refrigeration system to be used during integration and testing at SLAC has successfully demonstrated capacity at temperature for all thermal zones. The filter exchange system has been delivered to SLAC and installed in the camera body. Also, both shutters have now been completed. Integration and test activities are on track with successful operation of a partially installed focal plane and operation of the completed focal plane now underway. The commissioning camera (ComCam) was delivered to Tucson in June 2019, closing out this part of the MIE deliverables.

Running in parallel with LSST camera construction is the LSST commissioning effort. FY20 represents a significant increase in activity that will take place primarily in Chile. The integration and commissioning of the ComCam on the summit will begin in the spring of 2020; this includes the startup and testing of the camera refrigeration system using the completed refrigeration pathfinder. Once ComCam is fully assembled and installed in the NSF-supplied camera hexapod and rotator – and while the refrigeration pathfinder is operating – several months of software development with the final hardware is planned. We expect to be ready to install ComCam on the telescope by the fall (northern) of 2020.

LZ

The delivery of the TPC grids and extraction region has been completed, including citric passivation of the gate grid to enable high extraction fields with low electron emission. The group led the construction and verification of the LZ central TPC on site at SURF, including: integration and verification on the surface; transport underground; and final integration with readout electronics, cryogenics, and Xe handling now underway. The krypton removal production system to remove trace krypton from the 10 tons of xenon has been commissioned, and the threshold KPP has been satisfied. Unfortunately, manufacturing defects in two separate



pumping systems have caused delays. Mitigations have been successful, and production should begin shortly, but schedule concern and technical risks remain.

SuperCDMS SNOLAB

SuperCDMS, a joint investment of DOE, NSF, and Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), is now about 87% complete. Project contingency is not sufficient to cover work remaining. Project management has worked to develop new bottoms-up estimates-to-complete for major subsystems and has negotiated with main project partners to address the funding shortfall and restore contingency to an acceptable level. The project has also requested that installation and commissioning scope be moved to operations. Detector tower fabrication is at an advanced state, with 50% of the detectors fabricated and all associated mechanical and electrical components nearly complete. SuperCDMS delivered the first pathfinder detector to SNOLAB – G124, a full-size germanium HV detector – together with a detector tower, for operations testing at SNOLAB’s CUTE facility. The cryogenic system design was completed in the summer of 2019, but the single bid received for its fabrication far exceeded the project’s baseline cost and schedule budgets. A mitigation strategy has been developed, based on a redesign for a substantially smaller cryostat with attention to manufacturability and ebeam welding requirements. SLAC engineers with experience in welding large copper vessels are engaged in the redesign effort. Low-background copper for the cryostat and detector tower components, which arrived in February 2020, is being stored underground at MINOS. Design of infrastructure infrastructure components for SNOLAB’s ladder lab at the 6850-foot level has been completed and turned over to SNOLAB. Installation of major components, including a clean room, seismic platform, and utilities are underway. Assembly of the lead outer shield components was completed at Lemer Pax in France. The assembly was dismantled and arrived at SNOLAB in September and October 2019. SNOLAB has taken on the additional scope of completing the design of the outer water shield tanks and a number of other tasks related to infrastructure and support of experiment assembly. The main dilution refrigerator for the experiment has successfully demonstrated its KPP performance requirements, and testing and calibration at Fermilab is underway. Planning for the project deliverables handoff to the SNOLAB operations team is in-work, in preparation for installation and integration of the experiment at SNOLAB.

FACET-II

The project for the national user facility FACET-II is managed by SLAC in accordance with the memorandum from J. Stephen Binkley, Deputy Director, Science Programs, and recently carried out the annual project status, operations, and program advisory committee reviews. The construction efforts are nearly complete, with a tentative start of commissioning planned for September 2019 followed by the user experimental program in 2020. Thirty-five proposals were submitted and reviewed by the external program advisory committee, and approximately half of the reviewed proposals are expected to receive beam time. Initially, experiments that will support facility commissioning will be offered time. Following the commissioning, the experimental program will be prioritized around the seven proposals that received an “excellent” ranking. Operations are expected to start in Q4FY20 with user-assisted commissioning, and we are evaluating any possible interference with the other ongoing shutdown activities. FACET-II commissioning is presently held up by high priority items at LCLS-II during the long down time (LDT), and the program has been kept abreast as this develops.

The FACET-II project is nearly completed; however, resource conflicts with LCLS-II emerged.

Start of commissioning is presently projected for the spring of 2020, with demonstration of KPP and CD-4 equivalent shortly thereafter.

ATLAS

The centerpiece of U.S. contributions to the ATLAS HL-LHC upgrade is the ITk pixel detector. SLAC is responsible for the assembly of the inner system. SLAC scientist Philippe Grenier is the lead for the U.S. effort, and most of the SLAC ATLAS group members are actively involved in this project. The project successfully completed an independent project review recently, and the CD-2 review is tentatively planned for late 2020.

Elements in Support of 2.3 – Efficient and Effective Operations of Facilities SLAC efficiently and effectively operated laboratory facilities with high availability and reliability. SLAC also optimally configured and operated facilities to support users and user time, and performed R&D to develop and expand facility capability. The following provides examples of SLAC performance for Goal 2.3.


LCLS

LCLS activities in FY20 to date have centered on establishing readiness for LCLS-II and the restart of LCLS operations using the newly installed undulators and instruments. The restart of operations had to be delayed due to an overrun of the LCLS-II project’s “long



downtime,” and operations are currently anticipated to restart in mid-May. This should still allow the declared performance metric of 2500 hours of facility operation to be met, subject to further changes. The current status of the readiness for operations is as follows:

Completed installation of an almost entirely new front end enclosure for distribution of the X-ray beams from the two new undulators to the instrument areas, including upstairs to the new hutches: this required very close integration between the LCLS-II Project and Operations, with successful installation and pre-beam check-out to date.

A new suite of state-of-the-art X-ray detectors for LCLS operations was delivered, including a 4 megapixel Jungfrau for CXI, and delivery of the newest generation of ePix detectors from SLAC (the ePix-10k camera for high dynamic range measurements).

Design and ongoing installation of a new electron beamline (CLTS) to route the existing copper linac to the new soft X-ray undulators: this provides the ability to commission and utilize up to three new endstations using the 120 Hz beam prior to LCLS-II operation. This should significantly reduce the time to scientific productivity once the LCLS-II MHz beam comes online.

Design and ongoing installation of an internationally unique capability for isolated attosecond X-ray pulses and pairs of pulses known as XLEAP-2: this capability has motivated the formation of a large-scale science campaign, described below. Details of XLEAP performance to date were published in [Duris et al., Nat. Photonics 14, 30 (2020)].

Excellent progress on the design and installation of the first new instrument for LCLS-II operation: known as TMO (time-resolved atomic, molecular, and optical physics), this instrument will initially exploit the CLTS and XLEAP-2 functionality in FY20 and FY21, prior to full exploitation with the LCLS-II beam. This instrument is being designed to field three endstations – with two able to run concurrently – and will be optimized for charged particle spectroscopy of ultrafast atomic and molecular dynamics.

Good progress with the design and installation of a new monochromatic soft X-ray beamline and instrument area in the upper level of the LCLS Near Experimental Hall (NEH): this will feed into two new independent instruments – ChemRIXS (FY20 onward) for solution-phase chemistry, and qRIXS (once LCLS-II is operational) for high-resolution quantum material studies. It will also enable operation of user-supplied endstations.

The scientific program using the LCLS MeV-UED electron diffraction capability has seen continued remarkable progress in FY20. Recent highlights include:

A new gas sample chamber was commissioned in advance of the second MeV-UED user run. This will provide the option of selecting a different sample delivery system to optimize performance.

A liquid-phase endstation for the study of structural dynamics in solution was designed and commissioned. The traditional challenges of electron penetration and liquid delivery in vacuum were overcome through the use of a gas-accelerated thin liquid sheet jet previously developed for LCLS’s X-ray instruments. The structure of water and its network were resolved up to the third hydration shell with a spatial resolution of 0.6 Å, as described in an article highlighted in Structural Dynamics [Nunes et al., Structural Dynamics 7, 024301 (2020)].

SSRL

SSRL has maintained high availability and reliability in FY20, with 98.9% uptime and a mean time between failure (MTBF) of 63 hours for SPEAR3, and a 98.4% availability and MTBF of 144 hours for the injection system.

Five new SSRL beamlines will provide expanded capabilities: 1) BL15-2 (undulator beamline for advanced spectroscopy and time-resolved studies) the laser system required for time-resolved studies was commissioned and transitioned into user commissioning; 2) BL16-2 (NNSA- funded soft X-ray metrology beamline) continued interleaving user operations with developing and commissioning additional beam line functionality; 3) BL16-1 (hard X-ray branch line) construction is ongoing; 4) BL12-1 (a macromolecular crystallography undulator beamline that will provide complementary capabilities to the MFX beamline at LCLS; primarily funded by Stanford and The Scripps Research Institute) optics commissioning is completed; currently in preparation for user operations with full robotic automation; and 5) BL17-2 (the energy sciences scattering beamline developed to address SLAC’s strategic needs in the areas of operando energy-related materials, catalysis, and time-resolved studies) has been installed and beamline commissioning has commenced.

To take full advantage of the micro-focusing capability on BL5-2, SSRL has strategically invested in an upgrade of the electron spectrometer on BL5-2 to the latest DA30 model from SCIENTA. Concurrently, new data acquisition software was developed to fully integrate the new deflection mode capability with the beamline and endstation control. This upgrade not only enhanced the data acquisition efficiency, but also improved the data quality significantly, transforming this beamline into a top competitive micro-ARPES facility in the world for exploring new quantum materials. Soon after commissioning the new spectrometer, the high quality



of the data has led to the recent discovery of magnetic Weyl semi-metal and to a number of high profile publications [I. Belopolski et al., Science 365, 1278 (2019) and D. F. Liu et al., Science 365, 1282 (2019)].

An LDRD supported project – a collaboration with NIST and Stanford that began in 2016 – has successfully deployed TES technology at BL10-1 to probe the local electronic structure of low concentration sites in biology, chemistry, and materials. The introduction of TES capabilities begins a new paradigm of soft X-ray spectroscopy at SSRL, as it addresses a detection capability gap in the soft X-ray regime due to the limited sensitivity of existing technologies. This project has now started providing exciting results through the unique ability of the TES spectrometer to explore the electronic structure in radiation sensitive samples at low concentrations.

In the past year, Nano-X has been developing advanced diffractive optics for free electron lasers and synchrotron applications and building up the nanofabrication laboratory. For free electron lasers, single-shot wavefront sensors are being transitioned from R&D into user operations. They are being deployed at LCLS-II and in all LCLS-II Instruments (L2SI), and optics for the first instruments and the front end enclosure (FEE) have been fabricated and delivered. Initial investigation into the usage of the wavefront sensor for accelerator optimization and tuning as well as imaging applications have started. In addition, large area, wavefront preserving diamond gratings have been developed and fabricated for beam splitting applications at LCLS/LCLS-II. These gratings have applications for in-situ diagnostics, pump probe, beam sharing, ghost-imaging, and many other applications. Additionally, hard X-ray ultrafast FEL pulses with orbital angular momentum have been produced using spiral zone plate optics.

For synchrotron applications, structured illumination ptychography work has been successfully demonstrated at the ALS, with additional extension efforts at the National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II). The structured illumination optics are capable of multi-scale imaging for both STXM and ptychographic modes. High-resolution imaging with reduced acquisitions have been demonstrated, and investigations into 3D imaging implications for the structured illumination is being performed. Structured illumination optics for X-ray fluorescence imaging have been designed and experimental demonstrations are being planned. Diamond and silicon etching techniques for high efficiency, high performance optics continue to be investigated.

BES Data Pilot Project: The five light sources have come together to design and deploy common cyber infrastructure and data analytics for large data-producing instruments under a BES funded pilot project. Under the pilot project, SSRL will first work on high throughput scattering on BL1-5; and based on successes at 1-5, SSRL will next work on a multi-element detector based, continuous scanning XAS spectrometer on beamlines 9-3 and 11-2.


ATLAS

SLAC scientist Martin Kocian is the project leader for the pixel detector as well as the inner detector. These systems ran smoothly throughout Run 2 at the LHC, despite the instantaneous beam luminosity reaching twice its design value. He is coordinating all maintenance activities during the current long shutdown, including keeping the pixel detector cold at all times to avoid reverse annealing in the radiation damaged pixel detector.

Short-Baseline Neutrino Program

Following the deployment of the ICARUS LAr TPCs, which included SLAC personnel conducting connection tests for over 50K wires, SLAC is continuing to support important commissioning activities by co-convening the DAQ and trigger groups and supporting software development for early data analysis as well as long-term computing infrastructure.

FGST

FGST and the large area telescope instrument are operating well, with more than 99% efficiency in data collection. A decrease in DOE support for FGST at the end of FY18 has been accommodated by associated increased coverage of needed operations support tasks by NASA and members of the FGST LAT collaboration. Routine coordination of support efforts continues between SLAC, NASA and other members of the LAT collaboration. Although one of the two solar panels that provide electric power on FGST has stopped rotating to point at the sun as of March 2018, the mission has successfully adapted to this limitation: the fixed solar panel is at a relatively favorable rotation angle, and the Fermi power sub-system continues to maintain a significant positive power margin. The ongoing sky survey has been slightly modified to ensure the electrical power subsystem continues to perform as needed. In July 2019, NASA extended the FGST mission for another three years until 2022, based on feedback from the latest NASA senior review conducted in April 2019. FGST was invited by NASA to propose another future mission extension at the next NASA senior review in 2022.

HPS

SLAC played a major role in operation of the experiment at JLab during June through September in 2019, providing 24/7 on-site coverage of SVT expertize, and performing ~25% of run coordination and regular shift work. SLAC experts on site at JLab throughout the run ensured that SVT operation was >90% efficient.



LZ

The SLAC liquid nobles test platform, consisting of the gas and liquid phase test vessels, completed primary operations to support production of LZ grids, resulting in substantially improved high voltage performance. We will maintain grid testing facilities for possible use to optimize LZ operations and to inform LZ data analysis. We are now planning work on LZ upgrades, including Rn removal and hydrogen doping for low mass WIMP sensitivity (HydroX).

SuperCDMS SNOLAB

The plan, schedule, and budget for the full life cycle of operations of the SuperCDMS SNOLAB experiment were presented at a joint agency operations review in June 2019. Subsequently the operations team has incorporated detailed replanning to take on the additional scope of installation and commissioning of the experiment at SNOLAB, which also accounts for the delayed delivery of the smaller cryostat. Initial NSF funding in FY2018 is being augmented by targeted supplementary funding requests. A revised operations proposal was submitted to NSF in December 2019 to request operations funding during the period July 2020 to June 2023, including support for testing and calibration of detectors at the CUTE (SNOLAB) and NEXUS (Fermilab) test facilities. The operations budget request reflects a fair share division of operations costs between NSF, DOE and the Canadian agencies, which is based on the relative fractions of PhD physicists supported by each agency in the SuperCDMS collaboration.

Elements in Support of 2.4 – Use of Facilities to Provide Impactful Science and Technology Results to External User Communities SLAC facilities were used to perform influential science with high impact. SLAC pushed the envelope on the facility capabilities and balanced access by internal and external users. SLAC also effectively performed program outreach to the scientific community. The following provides examples of SLAC performance for Goal 2.4.


LCLS

The start of LCLS Run 18 has been delayed until at least May 2020 as a result of an over-run of the LCLS-II Long Downtime. This was primarily driven by issues associated with the Personnel Protection Systems (PPS) in the complex beam switchyard (BSY) area. This places the ability to achieve the declared 2500 facility hours at risk.

LCLS launched a call for extended “Scientific Campaigns,” which are designed to pull together multiple institutions to form cross-disciplinary teams that can provide a complete capability for theory, modeling, sample synthesis, experimental design and execution, and data analysis and interpretation. The excellent user community response included 21 received proposals, three of which were approved as full campaigns, and eight others received a single beamtime in Run 18. The three approved campaigns involve 30 institutions:

o J. Cryan et al., “Real-time Observation of Ultrafast Electron Motion using Attosecond XFEL Pulses;” 39 investigators from 16 institutions (SLAC, PSI, Imperial, LMU, U Conn, OSU, ANL, LBNL, CU-Prague, Stanford, LSU, UA-Madrid, KSU, DESY, MPI-HD, Tohoku).

o G. Venkatraman et al., “Fluctuations, Emergence and Dynamics of Complex Topological Superstructures by Design;” 14 investigators from 5 institutions (Penn State, Arkansas, ANL, SLAC, LBNL).

o M. Trigo et al., “Nonlinear couplings among collective modes in quantum materials;” 21 investigators from 13 institutions (SLAC, U Illinois, UCSD, RIKEN, Hamburg, BNL, Harvard, Georgetown, Stanford, ETH-Zurich, MIT, LANL, U Penn).

Chemical Sciences

o Researchers have witnessed for the first time how liquid water produces free radicals when subjected to ionizing radiation. The discovery of strong, isolated signatures for different free radicals in the X-ray water window allowed the capture of elusive proton transfer dynamics after ionization of water. This work also provides a new method to track ultrafast chemical reactions in aqueous environments [Z.-H. Loh et al., Science. 367, 179-182 (2020)].

o A powerful technique for characterizing molecular structure has been demonstrated with femtosecond time resolution for the first time. The first use of femtosecond EXAFS resolved short-lived structures of reaction intermediates with ~0.02 Å precision and 1000 times higher time resolution than before. This is beneficial for the understanding of photo-catalytic systems and biomolecules [A. Britz et al., Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. (2020)].



o The LCLS MeV-UED instrument was used to provide spectroscopic and structural probing of excited state molecular dynamics with time-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy and ultrafast electron diffraction [Yusong Liu et al., accepted in PRX (Mar. 2020)].

Materials Sciences

o LCLS MeV-UED was used to study the light-induced charge density wave (CDW) in LaTe3. A strong competition between two CDW orders was observed, with the emergence of the new density wave representing a transient non-equilibrium phase of matter with no equilibrium counterpart. This study provides a framework for discovering similar states of matter that are “trapped” under equilibrium conditions. [A. Kogar et al., Nat. Phys.16, 159 (2019)].

o LCLS was used to measure the ultrafast optical melting of charge-order correlations in the high-T superconductor lanthanum barium copper oxide. Evidence was found of a short-lived nonequilibrium state, the features of which are compatible with a sliding charge-density wave coherently set in motion by the pump. These results underscore the power of ultrafast optical excitation as a tool to coherently manipulate electronic condensates [P. Abbamonte et al., Phys. Rev. B 100, 205125 (2019)].

o By combining ab initio calculations with ultrafast diffuse electron scattering, a detailed understanding of the complex non-equilibrium energy transfer between electrons and phonons was measured in laser-excited Ni metal [P. Maldonado et al., accepted by Phys. Rev. B as rapid communication (2020)].

o Stanford faculty members William Chueh and Aaron Lindenberg extended MeV-UED to study ultrafast structural dynamics of in situ lithium-intercalated WTe2, which is the first time that in situ electrochemistry has been demonstrated in a UED system.

Bioscience

o LCLS was used to help determine the functionality of anti-asthmatic drugs. Two distinct high-resolution structures of a membrane receptor in complex with anti-asthmatic drugs reveal unique ligand-binding modes and signaling mechanisms. These results provide important insights and structural templates for rational discovery of safer and more effective drugs against asthma and other inflammatory diseases [A. Luginina et al., Sci Adv 5, (2019)].

o LCLS provided key insight into how microbes break down antibiotics and help develop effective therapeutics by observing the dynamics of isocyanide hydratase, which is closely related to a drug target for Alzheimer’s disease. Serial X-ray crystallography, computer simulations, and enzyme kinetics reveal how conformational dynamics help passage along the reaction coordinate in covalent catalysis. [M. Dasgupta et al., PNAS 25634–25640 (Dec. 2019)].

o LCLS was used to investigate the structure of a deadly pathogen that leads to the tularemia disease. Tularemia remains poorly understood, with no safe and effective vaccine, and with the potential to be adapted into a bioweapon. LCLS was used to examine a key membrane protein responsible for the bacterium's prodigious ability to infect the body and cause illness. The room temperature structure was shown to exist in a significantly different conformation than previously described by NMR techniques [Zook et al., Structure 28, 1-8 (2020)].

o Collaborations with the DESY group on bio-sample structure have demonstrated that MeV-UED has the q-resolution required for bio-sample structure determination. Sample stages to enable such measurements are now being designed.

SSRL

SSRL continues to operate ~5000 hours per year, which resulted in beam time for more than 1,700 unique on-site and off-site users. The publication count for FY19 is not yet complete, but is on track to be comparable to that of previous years with 566 journal publications, 63 theses, and 3 book chapters. The FY20 user satisfaction survey to date continues to have a very high response rate of 70%.

SSRL held training workshops, including a soft X-ray RIXS workshop in February 2020 covering the fundamental aspects and new developments in soft X-ray absorption spectroscopy and resonant inelastic X-ray spectroscopy, with lectures on fundamentals and applications with hands-on-calculations. Planned workshops include the Ultrafast Summer School in June, the SSRL X-ray Scattering School in July, the SSRL EXAFS Summer School in August, as well as hosting the 78th Pittsburgh Diffraction Conference and several cryo-EM workshops.



SSRL, through Co-ACCESS, has continued to expand its support of catalysis users. Since its inception in 2017, Co-ACCESS has grown from 30% of an equivalent beamline in a scheduling cycle to 105% in the current cycle. We have expanded our catalysis research from thermal heterogeneous catalysis to safe operations at high pressure, to in-situ electrocatalysis, and to photocatalysis.

Two important studies have recently been completed through this program. In the first, scientists from UC Santa Barbara, UC Irvine, University of Michigan, and SSRL resolved the discrepancies in the literature between the behavior of isolated Pt atoms (single atom catalyst) in surface science studies and DFT calculations with those observed for high surface area catalysts. This study highlights strong influence of uniformity and local coordination of isolated Pt species interactions with adsorbates and reinforces the importance of using low metal loadings to develop rigorous structure-function relationships in atomically dispersed metal catalysts (Resasco et al., JACS, (2019) DOI: 10.1021/jacs.9b09156)]. In the second study, scientists from Stanford, the University of Washington, and SSRL discovered that a novel Mo-OH species substituted into the Rh nanoparticle surface stabilizes oxygen binding to the Mo atom and creates a unique hydrogen adsorption site on MoO3-promoted Rh catalysts that are widely studied for the direct conversion of syngas to higher oxygenates [Asundi et al., JACS, (2019) DOI: 10.1021/jacs.9b07460].

In the area of energy materials, a new study elucidates the spatially resolved charge distribution in lithium layered oxides with different grain crystallographic arrangements and establishes a model to quantify their charge distributions. This work provides an improved understanding of the charge distribution and chemomechanical properties of polycrystalline battery materials [Xu et al., Nature Commun 11, 83 (2020), https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-13884-x].

Metal additive manufacturing represents a new era for design and fabrication of complex metallic parts. Laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) is a method of additive manufacturing that is capable of producing fully dense, finely detailed metallic parts from a number of technologically important alloys. In situ X-ray based measurements of the LPBF process produce unique data for model validation and improved process understanding. A laboratory-scale LPBF test bed was designed to accommodate diffraction and imaging experiments at SSRL during LPBF operation that enabled the extraction of subsurface cooling rates not possible by other techniques. [V. Thampy et al., Scientific Reports, 10, 1 (2020)].

The TES program has now started providing exciting results through the unique ability of the TES spectrometer to explore the electronic structure in radiation sensitive samples at low concentrations. This capability was recently used, in a collaboration between Harvard (Beatley), Cornell (Lancaster) and SLAC, to reveal a bonding character in an important class of copper complexes that are relevant for copper-catalyzed amination. In particular, the soft X-ray spectroscopy was able to characterize isolated triplet terminal copper nitrene complexes to reveal a nitrene adduct bound to Cu-I as opposed to Cu-II or Cu-III, also indicating the absence of Cu−N multiple bond character. [K.M. Carsch et al., Science 365 (6458), 1138-1143, 2019)]. This effort is in parallel with a second TES detector that has been deployed on BL13-3 to add RIXS capabilities. The enhanced sensitivity of the RIXS-TES instrument will enable operando studies of systems such as batteries.

In the area of quantum materials, our research efforts have been focused on both high-Tc cuprates and iron-based superconductors.

Significant progress in the understanding of the normal state in Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ has been made utilizing the superior vacuum quality control during temperature dependent measurement at BL5-4. This unique capability was achieved by minimizing outgas from the sample manipulator, which was crucial in avoiding sample surface aging. The result suggests an unexpected vertical phase boundary at 19% doping and the strange metal phase as a distinct new phase, as well as significant fluctuating superconductivity over a wide doping range [S. Chen et al., Science 366, 1099 (2019) (doi: 10.1126/science.aaw8850)].

A clear dispersion kink, as a signature of electron-phonon coupling, was discovered in an irridate, analogous to the cuprates, providing important insights into the role of electron-phonon coupling in doped Mott insulators [Y. Hu et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 123, 216402 (2019)].

Remarkable progress has been made in studying the nemticity in FeSe, a model compound of iron-based superconductor. With the unprecedented high-quality data owing to the spectrometer upgrade on BL5-2, we were able to resolve a long-debated issue about the energy scale of the nematic order and the role of nematicity to superconductivity. In addition, our study provides a natural explanation for the missing electron pocket with a dominant dxz character [Yi et al., Phys. Rev. X, 9, 041049 (2019)].

Complementary to ARPES, resonant soft X-ray scattering (RSXS) is a powerful tool in the study of the emergent orders in quantum materials. In the field of high-Tc cuprates, one piece of the puzzle is the presence of CDWs – static stripes of higher and lower electron density running through a material – in the pseudogap phase of many cuprate superconductors. The relationship between the CDW phase and superconductivity remains an open question: do these charge stripes enhance superconductivity, suppress it, or play more complicated role? Using the RSXS instrument at BL13-3, a co-existence of two types of CDW arrangements has been recently discovered in La-based cuprates, indicating that the long-range striped CDW is competing with superconductivity under the phase separation. On the other hand, the short-range CDW

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-13884-x



fluctuation is more intrinsically intertwined with the superconductivity. This study charts a new course for fully mapping the behaviors of electrons in these exotic superconducting materials [Wen et al., Nature Communication 10, 3269 (2019)].


ATLAS Support Center at SLAC

SLAC is one of four locations of this multi-site user facility providing support to the U.S. ATLAS community. As the hub of activities in HL-LHC pixel detector construction in the U.S., SLAC has hosted several workshops on its design, layout, and planning. SLAC continues to host scientists and students for collaboration on the ITk pixel inner system and scientific analyses from the following institutions: Cal State East Bay, Cal State Sacramento, SMU, University of New Mexico, University of Massachusetts, and Amherst.

ATLAS Analysis Computing Facility

SLAC is one of two analysis computing facilities within U.S. ATLAS and currently serves over 60 U.S. ATLAS users.

EXO-200 Operations

Operations of the EXO-200 detector ceased at the end of November 2019. Valuable detector components were transferred to ground and shipped to SLAC for disbursement to collaboration members.

FGST

SLAC provides the sole data processing and management facility for the complete dataset from the LAT on FGST. SLAC supports the operations facilities used for developing and testing flight software for the LAT, and also hosts and uses real-time monitoring capabilities that are needed for LAT and FGST support in the event of anomaly response – as well as real-time commanding of the LAT and file uploads to the LAT. The 4FGL catalog of LAT sources was released along with an extensively updated model of interstellar diffuse gamma-ray emission that underpinned the analysis and was co-led at SLAC. This deepest-ever catalog and model are now the starting point for standard analyses of LAT data, including searches for dark matter. The LAT is continuing to search for gamma-ray burst counterparts of mergers of paired neutron stars and black holes, with prompt analyses at SLAC following up LIGO/VIRGO gravitational wave detections during their O3 run, which will extend at least until April 2020. Together with the IceCube neutrino telescope, the LAT is looking for coincident detections in time and in arrival direction of neutrinos detected by IceCube and flaring gamma-ray sources detected by the LAT.

LSST-DESC Operations

The operations plan for LSST-DESC was last reviewed by DOE/HEP in May 2018 and is being implemented. Quarterly progress meetings have been held since the review with the DOE program manager; no further review has been scheduled, but is not expected to occur before the spring of 2021. SLAC staff members serve as operations manager and deputy. A number of computing coordination services were also performed.

Rubin Observatory (LSST Facility) Operations

The Rubin Observatory operations proposal submitted in August 2017 underwent a very successful joint agency review in December 2017 and is being matured by SLAC staff and the Rubin Observatory operations director’s office in Tucson into a preliminary operations plan for review in Q2FY20. The experimental operations plan will be supplemented by both the first annual program operations plan and the plan for evaluation and incorporation of international in-kind contributions to the observatory and LSST science. Ten SLAC staff members hold the equivalent of 3.25 full time employee (FTE) in operations roles across the organization, including: deputy director; program coordinator; observatory, pipeline and community scientist roles; observatory software consultant; documentation lead; data visualization engineer; and executive and administrative assistants.

SuperCDMS SNOLAB

SLAC hosts the main data processing and data management facility that will be used during the operations phase of the SuperCDMS SNOLAB experiment. An expanded scope of operations effort is expected to include installation and integration of the experiment at SNOLAB. Detailed planning is underway to re-assess the operations schedule and budget, restructure the operations Work Breakdown Structure, and review operations requirements and risks. A delivery delay of the cryostat is providing operations an opportunity to re-assess plans for detector testing and running at the CUTE facility, contingent on the delivery schedule for detector towers. The necessary operations replans will be constrained by budget limits imposed by the DOE and NSF.


Two recent papers from the HEDS community using the LCLS MEC instrument are highlighted:

First experimental data were obtained estimating nucleation rates of the compression of hydrocarbons into nano-diamonds at planetary interior conditions. The data support diamond formation from hydrocarbons inside the icy planets. They do not



match the latest theoretical predictions by many orders of magnitude and thus would change the current interior model of these planets [A. K. Schuster et al., accepted in PRB (Feb. 2020)].

LCLS was used to observe how quantum effects slow down collisions in dense plasmas, made feasible by the intense X-ray pulses. Quantum effects can shape the behavior of dense plasmas found in laser fusion devices and compact astrophysical objects [G. O. Williams et al., accepted in Physical Review Research].


SSRL

The high availability and reliability in FY20 of the SPEAR3 accelerator complex, so far with >99% uptime and >98% availability for the injector system, has enabled full operation at high current for the eight SMB beamlines – operated with funding from DOE-BER and NIH-NIGMS – including for macromolecular crystallography, small-angle X-ray scattering, X-ray spectroscopy, and X-ray micro-spectroscopy imaging techniques. At the end of 2019, the total biological science community included ~1000 investigators on active proposals, of which ~300 proposals are considered of relevance at least in part to BER mission science.

The instrumentation upgrade of the SSRL biological SAXS beamline BL4-2 includes an implementation of in-hutch Kirkpatrick-Baez (KB) focusing optics, providing enhanced brightness and microfocus beam size, and enabling new approaches to performing SAXS on BER-relevant biological systems. The system was in user commissioning at the end of FY19 and will enable SAXS studies of the most challenging biological problems. First scattering experiments were performed in FY20 using the KB-focused beam together with microfluidic devices for sample delivery. The experiments showed promising results, confirming the feasibility of performing challenging studies with this setup.

SSRL continued collaborating with LCLS staff in developing and implementing a goniometer-based, fixed-target sample delivery end station instrument – which is partly funded by BER – on the new LCLS MFX station for macromolecular crystallography. Prior to the LCLS-II upgrade in FY19, a new Rayonix 340 detector was commissioned as part of this system. Following the completion of the LCLS-II upgrade, an improved MFX goniometer-based instrument will be commissioned for first user experiments in August 2020. Developments for the MFX station are in synergy with those for the new in-vacuum undulator microfocus BL12-1 for crystallography, which will include fixed-target as well as injector-based sample delivery.

SMB program user training workshops already held or planned for FY20 include:

o A four-day comprehensive workshop on the application of solution scattering to structural biology (December 2019). The workshop offered: lectures on basic and advanced methods of small angle scattering; recent applications and new modelling approaches; extensive hand-on data collection and analysis tutorials; and provided an opportunity for participants to measure their own samples and analyze the data under expert guidance.

o The SMB program, in collaboration with the BioXFEL NSF center, held a workshop on X-ray Methods in Structural Biology at the Molecular Science Research Center, University of Puerto Rico, San Juan (January 2020). SMB scientists provided hands-on training to 25 participants in macromolecular crystallography, small angle X-ray scattering, X-ray spectroscopy, and X-ray imaging methods. Remote access to the synchrotron at SSRL for data collection and data analysis was provided.

o SSRL organized a two-day immersion workshop on advanced spectroscopy methods focusing on soft X-ray RIXS and XES (February 2020). The workshop was open to all areas of science and included hands-on training sessions on CTM4XAS, Quanty, and Crispy theoretical codes.

o The annual RapiData Structural Biology Workshop, which includes lectures, hands-on activities, and data analysis tutorials, originally scheduled for March-April 2020, has been postponed due to the COVID-19 closure of the SLAC site. When rescheduled, participants will be trained in data collection, processing, structure solution, and complementary methods over a 6-day period.

o The annual RapiData Structural Biology Workshop, which includes lectures, hands-on activities, and data analysis tutorials will be held in March-April 2020. Participants will be trained in data collection, processing, structure solution, and complementary methods over a 6-day period.

o A 4-day summer school will be held in August 2020. It will focus on the theoretical, experimental, and data-analysis aspects of X-ray absorption spectroscopy, with particular focus on the analysis of complex EXAFS spectra.

o The SMB program is hosting the 78th Annual Pittsburgh Diffraction Conference at SLAC. It will be scheduled to occur just prior to the annual SSRL/LCLS Users Meeting on September 27-29, 2020.



A BER-funded postdoctoral scholar joined the SMB program in April 2019 as part of a new FWP to enable and support investigators in using SLAC’s imaging tools to address multi-scale spatio-temporal phenomena important to BER’s mission. Efforts will focus on introducing SSRL’s X-ray microXAS and other imaging and SR techniques as well as Cryo-EM, as appropriate, with an emphasis on solving challenging biological problems with BER mission relevance, through direct scientific experimental and data analysis support. To date, key collaborations have been created with focus on the DOE-BER Genome Science program areas at the BER-funded EMSL and ORNL. The resulting scientific projects were awarded beamtime in the FY20 first- and second-scheduling periods at SSRL beam lines 2-3, 11-2, 14-3 and 7-3. Results from the first experiment – the collaboration with EMSL-based DOE-BER SFA researchers – have been analyzed and a manuscript is currently in preparation. Outreach efforts have also included presentations by SSRL staff on SMB beamline capabilities at invited seminars at other national laboratories (EMSL, ORNL, and LLNL) and at select national meetings that focus on DOE-BER molecular science.

SSRL scientific staff is developing a new project to adapt, optimize, and integrate existing synchrotron X-ray chemical imaging and analysis methods into a high-throughput pipeline for detecting and characterizing anaerobic soil microsites. If funded by BER, this activity will develop workflows to efficiently collect, screen, and prepare soil cores for analysis and capture/archive associated metadata.

SSRL staff has continued to play an important role in a working group of BER-funded synchrotron and neutron structural biology user facility program PIs. The group focuses on how BER mission awardees can be made aware of useful techniques, how to access beamlines, and how facilities can work together through joint access systems. This activity has provided specific informational material at DOE BER PI and other topical meetings and provides ongoing updates to the joint website (https://www.berstructuralbioportal.org/). SSRL staff attended the BER GSP and ESS PI meetings and the JGI user meeting in FY20 in order to give presentations, interact with BER-funded colleagues, and provide outreach material.

Cryo-EM staff outreach included providing information on research opportunities at the new cryo-EM program at SSRL/SLAC as well as the capabilities at the new facilities. Outreach extended to several scientific meetings, including the Biophysical Society Meeting in San Diego, February 2020. Plans are in place for attending the Microscopy & Mircoanalysis Meeting in Milwaukee in August 2020.


1. BES: Execute the LCLS-II-HE project scope in compliance with the technical performance specification and within the established DOE project performance goals for cost and schedule. Performance will be assessed based on the work planned and accomplished during FY 2020, not on the cumulative performance of the project. (Objective 2.1)

Status:

o Project completed external and independent cryomodule final design review in preparation for CD-3A.

o DOE CD-3A and status review completed in November 2019 with recommendation to “Proceed to CD-3A." Project presented a new point estimate of $428M that includes a $60M TPC increase over CD-1. The revised TPC addresses:

• Cryomodule production estimate growth ($15M)

• CD-1 recommendation to increase contingency to >25% ($24M)

• Adequate contingency to address highest technical risks ($21M)

o The memorandum of agreement (MOA) for project execution and management has been signed by the three partner lab directors.

o Seeking CD-3A approval by end of February 2020 in order to support long lead procurements. All “prior-to-Energy System Acquisition Advisory Board (ESAAB)" CD-3A review recommendations have been closed. Also, all CD-3A documentation required by DOE.O.413.3b is complete and has been submitted to the program.

o The project has been practicing Earned Value Management System (EVMS) and operating on an internal baseline since July 2019. Monthly performance is shared with the program. The project will commence formal earned value (EV) reporting into the Project Assessment and Reporting System (PARS) two months after CD-3A approval.

o The project will begin awarding supply chain contracts immediately following CD-3A approval. Critical vendors are being pre-qualified prior to releasing calls for tender.

https://www.berstructuralbioportal.org/



o A memorandum of understanding (MOU) to allow for equipment purchase between HE and LCLS-II is ready for signature. HE will transfer funds to LCLS-II after CD-3A approval.

o A draft MOU between the project and SLAC is underway to identify and address potential off-project scope.

o The project is developing a systems engineering management plan that describes the framework for managing requirements in preparation for CD-2/3 design activities.

o Project management is working closely with SLAC resource managers to develop a plan for staffing up and launching CD-2/3 design activities in April 2020.

o The project is preparing for a facility advisory committee review of the preliminary design before the end of FY20.

2. FES: For the MEC petawatt upgrade project, complete the conceptual design and ensure project readiness for a CD-1 review by OPA in FY20. (Objective 2.1)

Status: ON TRACK. The MEC upgrade project has continued to enjoy excellent support from the community, as recently reflected in the explicit recommendations from the "Brightest Light Initiative" and the APS Community Planning Process summary report. Detailed analysis with the community has helped refine the preferred options for laser specification, target area capabilities, and overall facility layout. The conceptual design for civil infrastructure has been advanced to 60% completion for several facility construction options, and a preferred configuration has been selected for advancement to 90% for the Conceptual Design Report this year (large cavern, south shifted for compatibility with future LCLS development options). The conceptual design for petawatt and kilojoule lasers is suitably mature, based on detailed assessments with potential suppliers. Major tasks ahead for FY20 are the detailed configurations of target chambers and diagnostics, laser beam routing, and radiation shielding. Required documents for progression to CD-1 are in-progress and expected to complete this year. DOE/FES has communicated guidance to schedule CD-1 in FY21.

3. HEP: By January 2020, complete design and planning for the Sector 30 Transfer Line AIP project, suitable for a CD-1 equivalent review. In parallel, develop an initial plan and schedule for operations of the Sector 30 Transfer Line for accelerator R&D and possible physics experiments, including an estimate of incremental resources required for this program. (Objective 2.1)

Status: The design of the Sector 30 Transfer Line (S30XL) was reviewed by a DOE HEP committee on January 8-9, 2020. Significant progress has been made on the design since the beginning of the FY20 fiscal year. The mechanical design is estimated to be well beyond preliminary design, while the electrical and controls design is still at the conceptual design level. The cost estimate from 2016 has been updated with new bottoms up estimates, largely based on actuals from construction of the LCLS-II beamlines. The total for Phase A is estimated to be $5.88M and the bottoms-up contingency is calculated to be 24%. Scope contingency has been identified to bring the Phase A cost in line with the estimated DOE HEP funding. The installation schedule is being developed with the LCLS-II schedule. The project is aiming to complete the stand installation during a short summer down in August, which will allow completion of the installation in the tunnel during a down scheduled for December 2021 and commissioning as the LCLS-II superconducting linac begins operating in Q3 of FY21. To maintain this schedule, the S30XL has scheduled the final design review of the mechanical systems for April 2020 and the project will need funding and approval at that point in time. The electrical/controls final design review will be held in late FY20 or early FY21. Finally, given the possibility of limited project funding in FY20, a request is being submitted for operating funds to further develop some of the diagnostics that are necessary for Phase B.

4. BES: Effectively manage and execute the LCLS-II project in accordance with the Project Execution Plan and deliver the project scope in compliance with the technical performance specifications and within the established DOE performance goals for cost and schedule. Performance will be assessed based on the work planned and accomplished during FY20, not on the cumulative performance of the project. (Objective 2.2)

Status: See above status in 2.2. The project has shown signs of recovery in many areas from the challenges of 2019. The completion of the long downtime scope, and in particular the PPS certification, has been the biggest challenge of FY20. Contingency management is another area of concern as we see substantial risk in the upcoming 6-8 month.



FY20 SLAC Year-End Performance Milestones (A=Actual) 2020 Performance Milestones September

Forecast Date Latest Forecast

Cryomodules F3.9-2 Testing complete 03/04/2020 03/09/2020 J1.3-11 Testing complete 04/06/2020 05/08/2020 2 - 3.9 GHz Cryomodules installed on stands 04/20/2020 04/27/2020 35 - 1.3 GHz Cryomodules installed on stands 06/03/2020 06/23/2020 All cryomodule interconnections welds complete 07/09/2020 07/29/2020 All beam line absorbers installed 07/09/2020 07/29/2020 Complete linac systems installation 08/24/2020 09/15/2020

Cryoplant Cryoplant #1 - 4K cold box installation complete 12/03/2019 02/13/2020 Cryoplant #1 GC mechanical installation complete 01/06/2020 03/24/2020 CDS - surface transfer line installation complete 03/06/2020 08/17/2020 Cryoplant #2 - 4K cold box installation complete 03/09/2020 04/23/2020 Cryoplant #2 GC mechanical installation complete 03/09/2020 03/27/2020 Commissioning of 4.5K CB for C1 08/10/2020 08/20/2020 Cryoplant #1 commissioning complete 09/08/2020 11/13/2020

Photon Systems HOMS and mirrors installation complete 10/14/2019 10/30/2019 A Imagers installation complete 11/26/2019 01/30/2020 A SXU undulators installation complete (Including connections and check out) 12/19/2019 02/14/2020 HXU undulators installation complete (Including connections and check out) 04/30/2020 04/22/2020

Long Down Time ARR - Linac (CU) complete 12/20/2019 01/16/2020 A Lock up of tunnel (end of long downtime) 12/20/2019 02/28/2020

5. HEP: By April 30, 2020, present a report to DOE-HEP and OPA a revised cost and schedule for the completion of the

threshold KPPs for the SuperCDMS project, with a credible estimate to complete and risk assessment and contingency. The project should clearly indicate what the expected remaining contingency will be at project completion and present a plan for installation and commissioning, and re-prioritizing Cosmic Frontier funds usage (in accordance with the CF program manager) for FY20 to allow SCDMS to start taking data as planned. (Objective 2.2)

Status: SCDMS project management has commissioned the development of – and reviewed the results of – a new bottoms-up estimate-to-complete (ETC) for these major project subsystems: tower system, all of the Fermilab scope, and the SNOLAB infrastructure support scope. These ETCs are the basis for a revised estimate-at-complete (EAC), which last fall was shown to exceed available contingency. The project then proposed to the major institutional partners (SLAC, Fermilab, and SNOLAB) a shared contribution model to reduce the draw on project funds for some aspects of the EAC. In November a second problem arose with the high cryostat bid, and the need for both a robust mitigation plan as well as an understanding of the costs for implementation. This resulted in a request to move the installation and integration task from project to operations. Assuming that the cryostat redesign effort can be supported from the restored DOE contingency, and the cryostat fabrication comes in at the baseline budget – in combination with the previous shared contribution model – a viable plan exists to complete the project. The cryostat mitigation plan is in development and should be available by the end of February. This will be presented to a mini-status review by the end of March, in time to present the plan to DOE (and NSF) in April. A lessons learned document on project experience with multi-lab multi-funding agency challenges is already available for the agencies to consider.

6. BES: Re-establish LCLS user operations as scheduled and realize the full potential of the new variable gap hard X-ray undulator and complete the commissioning of the new variable gap soft X-ray undulator by the end of FY20. (Objective 2.3)

Status: AT RISK. As described above, there has been good progress on the design, fabrication, installation and pre-beam commissioning of the new hard X-ray and soft X-ray beamlines, with completion of an entirely new Front End Enclosure.



The LCLS-II Project has installed the Soft X-ray undulators, and 20 of the 32 Hard X-ray undulators (sufficient to achieve saturated lasing at 12 keV) and demonstrated the mechanical performance of the new variable gap mechanisms. The remaining undulators will be installed in time for the Run 18 experiments. However, delays have been experienced with activities in the LCLS-II “long downtime”, with the Personnel Protection Systems (PPS) taking 3 months longer than planned. As such, the start of the user beamtime has been moved from early-March to a currently predicted date of mid-May. This should still be sufficient to achieve delivery of the planned 2500 hours of facility operations, unless other delays or downtimes are experienced.

7. FES: Successfully field two LaserNetUS experiments and implement a modified X-ray Diffraction system that is able to take advantage of the LCLS-II 20keV capability. (Objective 2.3)

Status: ON TRACK. The LaserNet experiments were successfully completed. The first experiment, which spanned October and November, was the most successful attempt at MEC to date to generate betatron covering the L-edge of iron. This was used to measure the absorption across the L-edge of iron both cold and heated by an ultrashort pulse.

The second experiment, just completed, measured reflectivity changes in VISAR as evidence of metallic hydrogen formation under the conditions that showed formation of diamond precipitate in compressed hydrocarbons (“diamond rain”). Under this experiment, THz generation with the MEC short pulse laser was demonstrated. First tests of making DC conductivity measurements using this beam on shocked matter are scheduled for follow-on experiments in mid-April.

A new standard configuration for X-ray diffraction at >20keV has been designed, consistent with the new vertical polarization of the HXR beam. The design was reviewed at the preliminary level, and concurrence has been achieved with a representative group of PIs from the user community (February 2020). Final design is now underway. This standard configuration is based on the new ePix-10k detectors for MEC that have been specifically adapted with a thicker silicon sensor for good sensitivity at these higher photon energies. This prioritizes a wide Q coverage while leaving the target normal to the X-rays, as required by the users. The first standard configuration experiments using this design are currently scheduled for September.


Concern: The LCLS-II-HE staffing plan is aggressive. The project needs to ramp up its staff in order to launch CD-2/3 design activities by April 2020.

o Mitigation: Three level 2 system manager positions are being filled in February/March. Five CAM positions will be filled through May. Project management is working closely with the Accelerator Directorate and LCLS engineering resource managers to develop a staffing plan that allows for design launch in April 2020.

Concern: Potential for LCLS-II-HE cavity vendors to be below qualification specifications; both vendors used for LCLS-II are undergoing internal challenges that could impact their performance. One experience vendor went bankrupt.

o Mitigation: Both vendors are undergoing pre-qualification activities that include the ability to use HE cavity doping processes. Project staff is being deployed to the vendors to ensure proper knowledge transfer and to facilitate industrialization of in-house processes. A third vendor is planning to prepare a formal bid and could be considered if qualification of the LCLS-II vendors fails.

Concern: SC guidance of approval and execution of CD-3a is changing. Delays will impact schedule, on-going procurement activities and cost and scope transfer between LCLS-II and LCLS-II-HE

o Mitigation: Work closely with the program and the FPD to continue seek approval for CD-3a and maintain timeline.

Concern: Off-project scope detailed in the LCLS-II-HE assumptions document must be addressed.

o Mitigation: An MOU between LCLS-II-HE and SLAC is under development.

Concern: At the time of CD-1, the LCLS-II-HE project assumed that the XPP end-station upgrade would be off-project scope. Given that XPP upgrade scope should be included within LCLS-II-HE scope, there will be a cost impact.

o Mitigation: SLAC, LCLS Operations, and the LCLS-II-HE project are working to identify a solution.

Concern: Scheduled contingency use for LCLS-II could put at risk CD-4.

o Mitigation: Project leadership is reviewing critical path logic and assumptions to identify revised sequencing to commissioning to realize scheduling gains.



Concern: PPS certification delays the restart of copper linac and impacts the number of hours needed for research.

o Mitigation: Daily meetings on PPS progress are held with the deputy lab director to review progress and add resources to ensure schedule is maintained.

Concern: Cost contingency use for LCLS-II project is at risk with emerging missing scope on cryoplant and injector.

o Mitigation: Project leadership is identifying other spare equipment that can be sold to LCLS-HE.



GOAL 3: Provide Efficient and Effective Science and Technology Program Management


Elements in Support of 3.1 – Effective and Efficient Strategic Planning and Stewardship SLAC developed high quality strategic plans for program areas that are well aligned with program and sponsor goals. SLAC effectively articulated and demonstrated strategic plans and vision to program sponsors. SLAC takes advantage of unique facility capabilities, conducts research unique to laboratory capabilities, and enables sustainable programs. The following provides examples of SLAC performance for Goal 3.1.


LCLS

The LCLS strategic plan was updated in October 2019, published on the external website, and discussed with our SAC and UEC as well as with the DOE program. This lays out the key science drivers and associated facility development path for LCLS-II, LCLS-II-HE and MEC, along with plans for new instrumentation, enhanced accelerator capabilities, and new detector and data systems.

LCLS-II Transition to Operations (TTO) planning: SLAC staff have spent considerable time planning a detailed approach to installation, commissioning and performance ramping of all aspects of the new LCLS-II beamlines and instruments, in concert with the LCLS-II Project delivery and associated activities at the SLAC level for essential infrastructure. This has required planning at the level of individuals, and for each sub-system, and for each stage of the TTO activities as part of an overall integrated approach for the facility.

X-ray Detectors and Data Systems: SLAC has developed a new strategic framework for the development of the suite of detectors that will be needed to underpin LCLS-II and LCLS-II-HE, with links to work underway for HEP, FES, and others. A new institutional leader has been selected, and the resulting strategy has been evaluated by review committees who assessed the technical approach and the overall direction. This work has grown out of a complex-wide assessment of need undertaken across the 5 BES light sources. The strategy provides a robust approach to meeting the major growth in capability at LCLS. This work is being driven in close coordination with the major step-changes needed for the associated real-time data extraction, data reduction and real-time analysis and feedback. A full test of the data architecture needed for LCLS-II-HE was performed in collaboration with ESnet and NERSC, providing confidence of our ability to meet the emerging need. This now needs to be expanded from the chosen data workflow (crystallography) to embrace all other aspects of LCLS science.

SSRL

SSRL is leveraging capabilities within the Technology Innovation Directorate (TID) and NIST in the area of transition edge sensors to bring unique high-resolution soft X-ray fluorescence capabilities to SSRL beamlines, which will impact research ranging from dose-sensitive metalloproteins to correlated materials systems. Results from the BL10-1 TES detector on soft X-ray fluorescence and RIXS have shown very promising results [S. Sainio, et al., "A Hybrid X-ray Spectroscopy-Based Approach to Acquire Chemical and Structural Information of Single Wall Carbon Nanotubes With Superior Sensitivity," J. Phys. Chem. C., 10.1021/acs.jpcc.9b00714, (2019)].

SSRL continues to execute on its strategic plan in the development of X-ray techniques that use its unique capabilities for in situ and operando studies that couple to the energy materials and catalysis research in the Energy Sciences Directorate, along with continued development of new undulator beamlines for advanced spectroscopy and scattering that will enable time-resolved studies and couple to the LCLS.

SSRL continued to provide strategic planning support in the development of a scientific and infrastructure plan for a SLAC-Stanford cryo-EM facility, including the integration of programs in synchrotron- and cryo-EM-based techniques and facilities, and a pilot joint user program. SLAC Photon Science faculty members at SSRL are co-PIs of the grant award that funded one of three NIH national cryo-EM centers located at SLAC. The facility – the SLAC-Stanford Cryo-EM Center – is located in the new Arrillaga Science Center.


The Accelerator Test Facilities Council was established to improve relations between U.S. accelerator test facility management teams and to foster a collaborative environment in the face of increased international competition.



The 2019 FACET-II Science Workshop was organized to promote user community engagement in advance of user-assisted commissioning in the summer of 2020.

A white paper entitled “Enabling a New Short-bunch Paradigm for Electron Accelerators with Machine Learning” was submitted to HEP in January 2020.

SLAC is implementing the planned strategic expansion of its engagement in the U.S. accelerator-based neutrino program. The addition of a professor, three associate staff scientists in experimental neutrino physics, and three research associates in theoretical neutrino physics in the last six months has allowed for the development of leading roles in DUNE near detector R&D, DUNE cold electronics, machine learning for neutrino physics, physics analysis for MicroBooNE and ICARUS, and neutrino cross section computations.

SLAC has initiated a project development program for R&D on a modularized liquid argon TPC with pixel readout prototype and a lightweight field cage for the DUNE near detector. This R&D will be carried out at the liquid noble test platform in IR2, expanding the use of this laboratory’s core capability. This work will benefit from the expertise and infrastructure in place.

SLAC invested project development resources to perform R&D for a new beam transfer line (S30XL) to deliver low-current electron beam from the LCLS-II dump line into End Station A, where it can be utilized for new physics initiatives, neutrino physics studies, and detector R&D. As an accelerator improvement project, this initiative creates a significant new electron beam facility in the lab complex that is invisible to LCLS-II operations at very low cost and negligible risk.

The application of quantum sensors to dark matter searches is being developed with the dark matter radio pathfinder.


Sebastian Meuren and David Reis hosted the third Conference on Extremely High Intensity Laser Physics (ExHILP) at Stanford. (homepage: https://web.stanford.edu/group/pulse_institute/exhilp/). The conference, which included ~100 participants, focused on Strong Field Quantum Electrodynamics (SFQED), with applications to astrophysics and cosmology, high-luminosity colliders, laser-plasma interactions, and physics beyond the standard model.

A white paper titled “On Seminal HEDP Research Opportunities Enabled by Colocating Multi-Petawatt Laser with High-Density Electron Beams ellucidating the scientific opportunities facilitated by colliding dense, multi-GeV electron beams with multi-PW optical laser pulses” was developed.


SSRL

SSRL’s structural biology program management developed a future research and facility strategy to support the BER science mission and its research community with a coherent multi-technique approach, and submitted a 5-year program proposal in December 2018 at the request of BER program management. This was in synergy with a proposal to NIH NIGMS for the support of biomedical research using the same technologies and facilities. The outcome of the respective peer-reviews was outstanding in both funding agency areas and it strongly endorsed the strategic planning, proposed approaches, and stewardship of the structural biology program at SSRL. The BER funding was initiated starting in FY20, and NIH funding will be initiated in March 2020.

SSRL BER-funded structural and cryo-EM biology program PIs have continued significant communication, interactions, and planning processes with BER program managers to define, plan, and execute – together with partners at other facilities – meetings aimed at informing and engaging BER-funded investigators for whom accessing specific techniques and facilities would enable and/or enhance their BER mission-focused science goals. A shared web portal has been updated and describes relevant science highlights, techniques, contact information, and access mechanisms.

Based on a proposal to BER in FY18, a new FWP entitled “Cryo-Electron Microscopy and Tomography for Frozen, Hydrated Biological Samples” resulted in an initial award that was provided in FY18. Additional funding provided in FY19 has enabled the procurement of two cryo-FIB-SEM instruments to augment the existing cryo-EM facility and capabilities at SLAC/SSRL. These instruments have been delivered to SLAC and will be made available for BER-funded researchers when operational in FY20, once the building facilities that house the cryo-FIB-SEM instruments have become available.

SSRL scientific staff engaged in further collaborative efforts on joint science projects with scientists at other BER-funded facilities. A collaboration was developed in FY19 with scientists at ORNL’s Center for Structural Biology for projects related to lignocellulose, using biological SAXS and SANS. A collaboration is currently being developed between the theory group at EMSL (NWChem researchers) and SSRL SMB staff to combine quantum mechanical methods for the interpretation of X-ray absorption near-edge data measured on the microprobe BL14-3 at SSRL. The collaboration will initially focus on tender X-ray spectroscopy with a future goal of developing a FICUS-like program between SSRL and EMSL.

https://web.stanford.edu/group/pulse_institute/exhilp/



SSRL is pursuing a multi-technique access mechanism for bioscience users that would initially include X-ray techniques (macromolecular crystallography, small-angle X-ray scattering) and cryo-EM. A pilot program has been launched, with proposals in review at the end of FY19 and science activity set to launch in FY20. This mechanism will eventually also include X-ray imaging, spectroscopy, and LCLS projects as appropriate.

The Department of Commerce (NIST) funds the JIMB at SLAC. Its establishment as an SSRL Division in FY19 has enabled joint scientific strategic planning between the biological programs such as in the area of plant ubiquitination. In response to the DOE-BER call for research contributing to the 2018 National Biodefense Strategy, JIMB devised a plan and submitted a proposal that will advance the principle of “fail-safe genome engineering.” Specifically, it was proposed to scale a generic approach for encoding biological pathways and systems in synthetic genetic codes that select against evolution, such that both designed system performance and containment safeguards are themselves intrinsically stabilized against escape via natural evolution (see “Synthetic Genetic Codes Designed to Hinder Evolution” https://doi.org/10.1101/695569). This effort saw initial BER funding at the very end of FY19, and is currently in expansion.

Elements in Support of 3.2 – Project/Program/Facilities Management SLAC provides effective program and facilities management and manages R&D according to plans. SLAC uses LDRD and other laboratory investments to improve competitiveness, and leverages across multiple areas of research and facility capabilities. SLAC also effectively identifies and avoids technical problems and is willing to make tough decisions. The following provides examples of SLAC performance for Goal 3.2.


LCLS

LCLS is driving a broad portfolio of R&D projects to help ensure continued international leadership. Recent examples are:

o 2020 will see the completion of a major project to direct the copper linac to the new soft x-ray undulator to enable early commissioning prior to LCLS-II, and to provide the highest peak powers for high field atomic physics studies. This is being augmented by the design and installation of the XLEAP-II system for producing single and dual attosecond pulses – a unique capability offered only by LCLS. These systems are timed to be available from the early phase of the upcoming Run 18 period.

o Development of an entirely new interaction mode for ultrafast experiments (known as PEPPEx), making use of the intense electric field of the electron beam, coupled to X-rays from the undulator in a world-first design for high-field physics on the attosecond timescale.

o There is extensive work on the development of novel sample injection technologies – ranging from “droplet on demand” for liquid-phase catalysis, to microfluidic systems for time-resolved biochemistry.

o There is a focused effort to take forward the field of X-ray optics. This starts with the development of the underlying theory and numerical models for dynamical diffraction to optimize the design of next-generation beamlines. This has been applied to the design of a new ‘split and delay’ system making use of a combined grating and crystal system that allows ultra-high stability and compensation of nonidealities that have compromised prior systems. Good progress is also being made on a new concept for polycapilliary X-ray optics that will substantially increase the signal for spectroscopic measurements.

o The most ambitious project is perhaps the development of ‘cavity-based XFEL’ system designs for high peak power (RAFEL) and high average power (XFELO) ultra-stable narrow band X-ray beams. Working with Argonne National Lab, these systems are now in detailed design, for testing at LCLS and then prototyped on the new LCLS hard X-ray undulator. These offer a path to a major upgrade in capability for X-ray science later this decade.

LCLS-II

The project is completing the long downtime installation supporting the copper linac; restart of research will occur approximately three months later than planned.

PPS certification has been problematic for the long downtime completion and will require substantial focus in FY20 to ensure the super conducting linac turn on is not delayed.

Cryoplant installation, cryogenics distribution, and cryomodule installation are proceeding as planned for FY20. Cryoplant #1 is integrated and testing is proceeding as planned.

Project is preparing for final phase of installation and is incorporating lessons learned from long down time.

https://doi.org/10.1101/695569



SLAC labor costs for the controls and cable plant are exceeding planned budgets, and injector beamline scope was underestimated.

SSRL

SSRL has effectively used LDRD programs to leverage its R&D funds. In past years, this has included a number of developments that further the DOE mission. This activity will continue in FY20 with several LDRD proposals in the works. In addition, SSRL is hosting a SLAC Panofsky fellow who will develop novel methods for single particle bioimaging using X-ray and electron sources.


A satellite meeting to the ExHILP conference organized the first E-320 (SFQED Experiment at FACET-II) collaboration meeting at SLAC on September 2, 2019.


SSRL

SSRL scientific staff engaged in collaborative efforts with EMSL and JGI through a FICUS user proposal examining microbial metabolic activity and biogeochemical reaction networks in redox cycled alluvial systems.

A new three-year science plan is being submitted to the BER Climate and Environmental Sciences Division (CESD) for the SSRL/SLAC Groundwater Quality SFA. This program will address mission-critical priority research needs within CESD by providing new quantitative and conceptual process models for coupling between hydrological and biogeochemical processes in floodplains. These processes are critical for maintain groundwater quality in the Western U.S. This program will also provide new collaborative synchrotron imaging workflows and data analysis capabilities for BER researchers who are conducting research on the impacts of anaerobic microsites on the compositions of soil, water, and the atmosphere.

Imaging tools at various length scales are key in studying systems important to BER’s mission, including redesigning microbes and plants for sustainable biofuel production and finding ways to improve carbon sequestration and storage. SLAC and Stanford together built a significant imaging capability to address these needs, with the SLAC-Stanford Cryo-EM Facility on the SLAC site becoming fully operational in FY18. With this facility and its programs becoming a division of SSRL in FY19, there is a focus on multi-technique approach development, with a joint facility user access pilot ongoing in FY20.

A cryo-FIB-SEM facility will become operational in FY20 with funding from DOE-BER that was initiated in late FY18. Two instruments have been delivered and spaces for each will become available in FY20, at which point they will be commissioned and available for the proposed research.


SLAC is providing management for the SuperCDMS SNOLAB project. David MacFarlane is the project director, Tiffany Tran is the project manager, and Richard Partridge serves as deputy project manager. Ken Fouts has transitioned from project manager to project engineer. SLAC is also providing operations management for the SuperCDMS SNOLAB experiment; Robert Cameron is the operations manager and within operations Tina Cartaro is the Level 2 manager for computing and software.

The LZ group at SLAC provides significant support in management of the project. This includes three Level 2 managers at SLAC (Akerib, Monzani, Shutt) and management of substantial components of technical aspects of the project at Level 3. In preparation for LZ operations, Biesiadzinski has been leading detector installation/verification, and is Level 2 manager of detector operations. Monzani serves as the deputy operations manager for offline software and computing, and is a member of the LZ operations office.

SLAC is providing project management and systems and mechanical engineering support to the interim project office for CMB-S4.

The laboratory is providing program development funds to professors Schuster and Toro, theorists who recently joined SLAC faculty to develop their theoretical physics program in hidden sector physics.

The laboratory is providing program development funds to Professor Hiro Tanaka, a neutrino experimenter who recently joined the SLAC faculty to develop his program in long baseline neutrino physics.

The laboratory is providing LDRD support to three Panofsky fellows: Zeeshan Ahmed, Michael Kagan, and Caterina Vernieri.

The Fundamental Physics Directorate (FPD) associate lab director hosts a monthly teleconference that involves SLAC HEP program management and the HEP program office to review program, project, and operations performance and status. Participants include the associate laboratory directors for SLAC HEP programs, HEP project directors, and the KIPAC director.

SLAC AD/FPD/TID ALDs hold weekly meetings with members of the HEP program office. SLAC AD/FPD/TID ALDs and project managers meet monthly to discuss lab-wide issues. SLAC HEP program managers/project directors have weekly meetings with their respective HEP program sponsors.



Elements in Support of 3.3 – Communications and Responsiveness with Program/Sponsors SLAC continually strives for high-quality, timely, and accurate communications with program sponsors and effectively responds to customer requests for information. SLAC also provides point of contact resources, maintains effective communications, and effectively manages communications under extraordinary and critical circumstances. The following provides examples of SLAC performance for Goal 3.3.


The laboratory endeavors to inform BES of any extraordinary occurrence – such as extended beam downtime, safety incidents, or impacts to future programs – as soon as practicable, and has established a protocol inside the lab and with BES.

LCLS

Regular (at least monthly) meetings are held between LCLS and BES staff to provide updates on operational activities, with a formal agenda and minutes of actions.

Monthly teleconference meetings with BES focus on the transition to operations for LCLS-II and involve all relevant elements at SLAC. This is intended to ensure consistency of assumptions and plans across programs, SLAC and BES.

Periodic meetings are held with BES staff to provide updates on the development of new capabilities for LCLS-II (including the new instrument suite, detectors, data systems, etc.), with extensive detail provided on scientific prioritization, scope, schedule, and budget for each.

Bimonthly scientific highlights are provided on the output of research undertaken at LCLS.

SSRL

SSRL has provided timely bimonthly highlights to BES and participates in a bimonthly conference call for which written materials with the discussion items are provided prior to the call. The written materials cover the technical details and future programs as well as highlighting potential concerns.

The SSRL director promptly communicates with DOE User Facilities Division management when situations arise that impact operations or projects.

LCLS-II

The project communicates every two weeks with the program office in an integrated project team meeting.

Effective coordination is maintained between project director and program on issues as they emerge.

The project director issues a bi-weekly newsletter to the stakeholder.

LCLS-II-HE

The integrated project team meets monthly to report progress and to discuss emerging risks and mitigations.

The project team meets weekly with the federal project director to report progress and discuss strategies for addressing emerging issues.

The project director meets weekly with the lab directorate and the DOE site office management to report progress and communicate risks and mitigations.


The ALD for Fundamental Physics organizes monthly meetings between HEP and SLAC senior leadership to address all issues for ongoing programs.

SLAC HEP management holds weekly calls with HEP program managers to inform them about progress. HEP management across the AD, FPD, and TID directorates, as well as project managers, meet monthly to discuss lab-wide issues.

Project directors for all HEP construction projects and the deputy lab director meet monthly to discuss project progress and communicate risks and mitigations.


SSRL

SSRL biology and geology science leadership maintains regular contact with BER program managers to provide science highlights relevant to the BER mission; to discuss program elements, program performance, plans and scientific directions,



and instrumentation and technology development progress; and to provide other updates. SSRL leadership attends Biological and Environmental Research Advisory Committee (BERAC) meetings to stay informed and interact with BER program staff and leadership from other BER-funded facilities/programs.

SSRL BER program-funded PIs coordinated with BER program staff on the topic of strategic planning for DOE-BER PI meetings (GSP and ESS) and workshops supporting the BER mission, and also worked with BER program staff on materials and presentations for this purpose.

DOE-BER invited SLAC for a first-ever visit to present SLAC’s BER-focused science programs, facilities and capabilities, and future plans at DOE’s Germantown location on October 23, 2019. SLAC’s presentations provided information on SLAC’s position within the DOE national laboratory complex, its BER-related research strategy, facility updates, scientific highlights, and the development of the scientific programs within JIMB.


1. BES: Develop a strategic plan for the chemical sciences, geosciences, and biosciences research portfolio supported by BES-CSGB. The plan should articulate how an integrated portfolio is managed across SLAC organizations and the prioritization of areas for future emphasis, recognizing the evolving portfolio and budget. (Objective 3.1)

Status: A preliminary draft of the chemical sciences strategic plan has been developed. It will serve as the basis of a presentation to BES CSGB program management prior to preparation of the final version of the strategic plan.

2. BES: Provide effective leadership, management, and integration of LCLS-II partner laboratories and collaborating institutions to ensure project requirements are met and that the partner laboratories and collaborating institutions meet their performance objectives for FY20. (Objective 3.2)

Status: Work at partner labs is winding down in 2020. LBNL and Argonne are complete with work related to Undulators. FNAL has completed the 1.3 GHz CM fabrication and delivery. They are still working to complete the 1.3 GHz CM fabrication and delivery which should be complete in Q3 FY20. JLAB continues 1.3 GHz CM fabrication and delivery and support of the commissioning of the Cryoplant. Partnerlabs have done well on schedule and cost...

3. BES: Provide effective leadership, management, and integration of LCLS-II-HE partner laboratories and collaborating institutions to ensure project requirements are met and that the partner laboratories and collaborating institutions meet their performance objectives for FY20. (Objective 3.2)

Status:

Management Processes

o The MOA between the three partner labs (SLAC, Fermi, and JLab) was signed by the lab directors in December 2019.

o 1An internal baseline for the CD-3A scope was set in July 2019 and the project has been practicing EV since then.

o Effective leadership and integration is maintained through weekly senior management meetings, senior team leader meetings, and project coordination meetings.

o Effective project communications are maintained through weekly meeting with FPD, a weekly meeting with BASO and the SLAC director, and a monthly meeting with the BES Program.

R&D Management and Status

o The High Gradient/High Q0 cavity R&D program is progressing with 2 nitrogen doping recipes under development. Ten vendor-produced 9-cell cavities have been prepared with one of the new recipes for demonstration in the verification cryomodule. Three have been received to-date and all meet the qualification requirements. Plans for development of the second recipe have been delayed as the planned vendor is traversing bankruptcy proceedings.

o Fermilab completed the production readiness review for the verification cryomodule on February 26, 2020. Production is scheduled to commence in April 2020 immediately following the LCLS-II production and will demonstrate high-gradient performance with a goal of 21 MV/m average gradient and average Q0 ≥ 2.7e10 at 2°K.

4. HEP: By May 2020, develop a management plan for Accelerator Research (including FACET/FACET-II) for the next several years, including development of a diverse S&T workforce, commissioning and M&O of new and ongoing experiments, infrastructure improvements, and a draft science plan that articulates a vision for the future of Advanced Accelerator R&D



at SLAC. This plan should build on the multi-program capabilities of the lab as well as the particular expertise and leadership of lab staff, and take advantage of the lab’s position in the national AARD program. (Objective 3.2)

Status: In progress.


Concern: LCLS-II-HE industrial doping 2N0 (5+5) fails to meet performance specifications.

o Mitigation: Return to LCLS-II production recipe (2N6) and plan for higher yield loss.

Concern: Test results of the LCLS-II-HE verification cryomodule could be inconclusive or negative.

o Mitigation: Use LCLS-II cavity recipe for LCLS-II-HE and build three additional cryomodules to mitigate lower gradient performance.

Concern: LCLS-II-HE partner laboratory’s priorities could change.

o Mitigation: Rebalance the cryomodule production line between the two partner labs.

Concern: LCLS-II cost growth exceeds available contingency.

o Mitigation: execute on the descope plan further down the list.

Concern: Completion of 4.5k coldbox software development by JLab has been delayed over 6 months. Further delay could put it on the critical path for commissioning.

o Mitigation: Project leadership is conducting weekly meetings to track progress. A design review will be held in February to ensure adequacy of the development so far and determine a path forward. A second path for software development has begun at SLAC.

Concern: The decrease in FY20 HEP research funding had the potential to impact the laboratory’s cosmic frontier science programs. Future reductions in FY20, if implemented, will directly impact staffing levels and likely eliminate programs across HEP.

o Mitigation: The Accelerator and Fundamental Physics Directorates took necessary actions to meet research budget reductions and align the laboratory’s budget with available funds while protecting our priority science programs. Elimination of programs is more likely necessary with further reductions in research funding, and agreement with the HEP program office would have to be reached on determining priority. The Geant4 program is expected to terminate at the end of FY20.

Concern: PPS system delays showed weakness in project management approach and rigor.

o Mitigation: Leadership was replaced and the staff was supplemented. Lessons learned were folded into execution of sc linac PPS zone.

Concern: Controls and cable plant scope have consumed more budget and schedule than foreseen.

o Mitigation: Staff replacement, additional resources allocated, more focus on this scope going forward, with direct attention from the deputy director.

Concern: Contingency draw is higher than affordable to cover future risk.

o Mitigation: Communicate with Stanford, lab leadership, and the program to mitigate cost to the project.



GOAL 4: Provide Sound and Competent Leadership and Stewardship of the Laboratory


Elements in Support of 4.1 – Leadership and Stewardship of the Laboratory SLAC’s Mission

We explore how the universe works at the biggest, smallest and fastest scales and invent powerful tools used by scientists around the globe. Our research helps solve real-world problems and advances the interests of the nation.

SLAC’s Scientific Vision

SLAC has defined an exciting scientific vision to open new windows to the natural world and build a brighter future through scientific discovery. In support of this vision, we pursue several ongoing strategic initiatives; this year, we have made progress against these initiatives in the following ways:

Be the world-leader in X-ray and ultrafast science: We decided on the first set of scientific campaigns for LCLS-II and are organizing workshops to do more in these new directions.

Foster a frontier program in the physics of the universe: We are working with Stanford to build the detector microfabrication facility in support of our vision in quantum information science and cosmic microwave background stage 4 (CMB-S4).

Be an innovator for massive-scale data analytics: We are partnering with Stanford to expand the Stanford Research Computing Facility, and we invested in people and hardware in the area of machine learning to support our scientific programs.

Advance high energy density science: We are continuing to work toward CD-1 for the petawatt project and have made progress on designs of the upgrade.

Create a world-leading bioimaging program: The NIH-funded cryo-EM center in the Arrillaga Science Center is operational, and we are investing in space to house four new instruments.

Advance DOE’s mission in quantum information science: The SLAC-Stanford Quantum Fundamentals, Architecture and Machines (Q-FARM) initiative that launched last year has been extended for the next four years.

As part of ongoing conversations around our rearticulated mission and vision statements and our lab values, SLAC started the calendar year with a focus on a respectful workplace as foundational to achieving our mission. We defined what we mean when we talk about a culture of respect through a document that was distributed to every SLAC community member that reflects the lab’s commitment to a respectful workplace and outlines expectations of behavior that apply to everyone at the lab. The senior leadership team and managers are having open discussions with their teams about these commitments.

At the end of the first 6 months of this FY, the COVID-19 Pandemic is challenging the entire SLAC community with the most significant operational disruption in its history. Lab management, and the entire organization is rising to the challenge to continue to carry on its mission as well as an added focus on biological research to help the nation combat this new threat.

Partnerships with Scientific and Local Communities and Private Industry

SLAC establishes and maintains effective long-term partnerships with scientific and local communities and develops and leverages appropriate relationships with industry and private funding. We are engaging with industry on energy storage, expansion and allocation of more lab space and through the new cryo-EM center, we are engaging the pharmaceutical industry in the area. With the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, SLAC is initiating research that is of primary importance to development of therapies and for vaccines against the virus that causes it. In addition, there are a number of technical solutions to health care issues associated with the pandemic for which the lab is partnering with the School of Medicine and hospital.

Elements in Support of 4.2 – Management and Operation of the Laboratory SLAC has implemented some major initiatives targeting improved overall operations performance.

o Implementation of lessons learned from PSLB include process for improving development of subcontract requirements, strengthening subcontract language for subcontractor Quality and schedule performance and improving Work Planning and Control for subcontractors operating on site.



o Design and Construction Services (DCS) has replaced a legacy project tracking system with Nuvolo. The new system provides CAM’s and Business Managers with easy access to status of all active project activities and current cost estimate.

o Contractor Assurance and Contract Management has completed a new Integrated Assessment System (IAS) that will standardize the internal assessment process and record results of assessments in a single database. Training for the new IAS is underway with full implementation complete by the end of Q3 FY20. The IAS makes assessment results more readily available for analysis in a standard format, and provides additional information on effectiveness of systems and processes used by the business units and directorates. CACM has also begun work on an Enterprise Risk Management System (ERMS). The ERMS incorporates separate manual processes that are currently being used to maintain local risk registry’s within business units, into a single tool to standardize risk identification and mitigation.

SLAC prioritizes management and allocation of costs commensurate with risk and benefit.

o Despite being located in one of the highest cost regions of the country, SLAC remains one of DOE’s low-cost providers. SLAC is committed to maintaining our competitive rate structure while making the necessary investments in our infrastructure to support the mission needs of the future.

SLAC continues to ensure excellent and timely communications with DOE-SC and DOE-BASO.

Revolutionary Working Group (RWG) Model Contract Implementation Benefits

Last year SLAC completed a self-assessment of the RWG model contract and found measurable impact and improvements in trust between DOE, SLAC, and Stanford.

The DOE Office of Inspector General (OIG) did a follow-on assessment and published a recent “positive” report of the effort, which had no significant findings. This paves the way to continue to expand on the RWG model at SLAC and Stanford, and if DOE so choses, to other national laboratories.

Elements in Support of 4.3 – Leadership of External Engagements and Partnerships SLAC has established a strong vision for developing and promoting technology transfer activities that align with its research portfolio. It is part of our mission to develop relationships with industry and other government agencies to better bridge the gap between scientific discoveries and their practical applications.

SLAC is participating in LINC, a Bay Area collaboration of labs funded by the DOE Office of Technology Transitions (OTT), to increase brand recognition and identify opportunities to increase the impact of the labs. SLAC volunteered as the host site for the bay area labs, leveraging the geographic proximity to technology firms and Stanford.

Based on a recent OTT benchmarking report, SLAC has made major progress in increasing our Strategic Partnership agreements (per the report SLAC has increased from 15 transactions in FY14 to 70 transactions in FY18) and our licensing income (up from $0 in FY14 to $56,000 in FY18). Based on the OTT metric report, SLAC has on average generated $238,000 in funds in per strategic partnership projects agreement, which is significantly higher than the average for many other labs.

SLAC is transitioning industry partnering arrangements from being Stanford led to SLAC led. Having leveraged the relationships Stanford held in the past to build trust and knowledge of federal laboratory capabilities, now many partners are looking to engage directly with the laboratory.

In FY19 SLAC received feedback about needing to demonstrate a strong entrepreneurial culture and the need for stronger engagement of early career scientists to empower more diverse culture change. , SLAC, along with 4 other SC Labs recently received authority to engage in a Partnership Intermediary Agreement from DOE’s OTT to rhold Inventor Discover Events and a portfolio analysis for commercialization. In addition, SLAC is participating in the evaluation of inventor diversity and inclusion to remove barriers from underrepresented inventor populations in the tech transfer and partnership process, the focus of FY20 will be an evaluation of gender.

Elements in Support of 4.4 – Contractor Value-added In January 2020 Stanford transitioned the role of vice president for SLAC from Stanford Professor Kam Moler to Provost

Persis Drell. The Provost, along with laboratory management, with continue to work closely with the DOE Site Office at SLAC to ensure continued strength in the Stanford/DOE/SLAC partnership and effective oversight.

SLAC and Stanford are discussing the potential for an integrated approach to significant shared issues, needs, and opportunities where partnering could efficiently help advance our efforts. For example, Stanford is partnering with SLAC in studying the feasibility of a new computing facility to benefit both SLAC and Stanford. SLAC and Stanford are also evaluating the fit-out of space reserved for Stanford in the Arrillaga Science Center to create a new detector microfabrication facility,



which would significantly increase SLAC’s capability to perform quantum information science and contribute to CMB-S4 efforts.

Stanford Provost Persis Drell is serving as Stanford Vice President for SLAC following Bill Madia’s retirement. In this role, SLAC Director Emerita Drell – in close collaboration with Stanford Vice Provost, Dean of Research, and Professor of Applied Physics and Physics Kathryn (Kam) Moler – will continue to foster coordination between the laboratory, the university, and the DOE.

Q-FARM received a four year extension at $1M per year. Q-FARM is an interdisciplinary initiative woven throughout Stanford University -- we harness the expertise and facilities of Stanford University and SLAC to accelerate the development of quantum information science for national competitiveness and to address today's most difficult research challenges.

Stanford support for RWG:

The recently published OIG report on SLAC’s RWG contract provides strong support to move from a pilot agreement to an institutionalized approach. Stanford is committed to its on-going oversight and involvement to make SLAC one of the best managed laboratories in the DOE system.

Stanford’s SLAC Science Policy Committee (SPC):

The SPC reviewed SLAC’s LCLS-II and LCLS-II-HE Projects Update and “Early” Science Campaign. LCLS-II has made excellent technical progress, overcoming many challenges. The lab has handled significant organizational changes sensibly, including offloading some prior responsibilities from Norbert Holtkamp so he could assume the project director role. Among many positive actions, he is circulating a bi-monthly summary to all stakeholders on challenges, progress, and upcoming activities, keeping everyone on the same page, which is commendable. The project is carefully monitoring contingency.

The committee was also briefed and provided feedback on the laboratory’s X-ray detector vision. The SLAC LCLS detector group has a near and medium timeframe R&D program to develop new X-ray detectors following and drawing upon experience with SLAC’s ePix platform and Cornell–SLAC Pixel Array Detector (CSPAD) platform built in collaboration with Cornell University. It also leverages detector knowhow within the HEP program. The vision is to supply the upcoming X-FEL facilities at SLAC with seven detectors that are scalable in performance (spatial and temporal resolution, rep. rate etc.) while having standardized interfaces and communications protocols.

The laboratory’s cryo-EM scientific vision was also discussed with the SPC. Cryo-EM is an emerging method that provides structural insights into soft and biological materials at a 1 to 200 A resolution. Over the past five years, SLAC and Stanford have jointly made a major investment in this technology through the acquisition of four high-end cryo-EM instruments, construction of a dedicated laboratory for cryo-EM along with support labs for optical microscopy and tissue culture – and most importantly – the recruitment of Dr. Wah Chiu as the leader of this effort. Based on multiple yardsticks (such as NIH funding, collaborative projects, high profile publications, acquisition of additional instruments, popularity of training workshops), there is plenty of evidence that this investment is paying off handsomely.

Stanford’s SLAC Board of Overseers (BoO):

The BoO has continued to maintain its effective oversight of SLAC, especially considering the additional risks accepted by Stanford under the RWG. There was discussion of the Stanford Research Computing Facility and the significant data needs that the lab will have with LCLS-II and cryo-EM operations and other program growth. There is also the potential for the LSST data center at SLAC, which would add another 10-15% need. The laboratory has asked for board support in developing a solution to the data challenges. Board committee(s) were also briefed and provided feedback on a number of operational areas, including science communication priorities, business and human capital management, as well as operational readiness planning and preparedness for new major projects.

Stanford continues to invest/co-invest in SLAC

As discussed above, Stanford’s investment in both the detector microfabrication facility and the Stanford Research Computing Facility support two key areas for significant growth for SLAC.


1. BASO: Develop and implement strategies to reduce the adverse impacts to safety, quality, and efficiency posed by not following procedures as expected and inconsistent daily work planning meetings across the laboratory (subcontractor and employee activities). (Objective 4.2)

Status: The Quality Assurance (QA) group continues to work closely with Environment, Safety, and Health (ESH) to improve Work Planning and Control (WPC) rigor across the site and implement Human Performance Improvement (HPI)



methodology. SLAC developed a class 1-4 WPC ranking which drives the rigor of WPC which has significantly improved the oversight and planning for highly critical activities. Routine attendance at tailgate meetings by several members of the Contractor Assurance and Contract Management (CACM) team, with Facilities & Operations (F&O) personnel continues to help standardize best practices for addressing potential hazards in the workplace daily. CACM has added a quality engineer to the QA team to work with the LCLS-II-HE project to assure that WPC principles are implemented early in the project. Additionally, the Director of CACM chairs the LCLS-II Cryoplant Safety Readiness Reviews in order to both review planning and assess readiness for startup of cryoplant systems and to provide oversight to ensure that appropriate WPC rigor and safety processes are followed.

2. SC: Develop a plan to address the findings and recommendations from the scheduled peer review of the laboratory’s diversity and inclusion efforts conducted by the SC Office of the Deputy Director for Science Programs. Brief SC on the plan by June 1, 2020. (Objective 4.2)

Status: DOE was to conduct a review in late March, but this has been delayed, and laboratories will incorporate actions based on recommendations and feedback into the November annual plan, which SLAC will do.

3. BASO/SC: The laboratory must keep senior SC leadership informed of key events (e.g., VIP/protocol visits, news releases, media requests) through timely population of the Science News Dashboard with all the relevant information on such activities and/or through other appropriate mechanisms. (Objective 4.2)

Status: In Progress. SLAC Communications continues to proactively interface and inform DOE PA and SC Comms of news, activities, and media requests through strong relationships, regular communications, and the DOE‘s centrally managed dashboard.

Activities of note have included communication around the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board (SEAB) and President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) visits to SLAC in January 2020, as well as productive interactions between the lab and HQ around International Committee for Future Accelerators (ICFA), which SLAC hosted in February.

4. BASO/SC: Demonstrate full implementation of program(s) that protect sensitive government information, technologies, equipment, intellectual property, and assets as reflected in applicable regulations and DOE Orders; e.g., O 142.3A Unclassified Foreign Visits and Assignments, P 485.1 Foreign Engagements with DOE National Laboratories, O 486.1 Foreign Government Talents Recruitment Programs, 550.1 Official Travel, O 481.1E, Strategic Partnership Projects, and O 483.1B, DOE Cooperative Research and Development Agreements. (Objective 4.2)

Status: In progress. SLAC implemented a revised site compliance plan for DOE Order 142.3A based on the latest direction from the Office of Science, including CV and updated FACTS entry requirements. SLAC has implemented a system to track all non-Office of Science engagements (the third-party activity review committee, or TARC), including foreign engagements, in compliance with DOE Policy 485.1. This system also ensures compliance with DOE Order 481.1E and DOE Order 483.1B. SLAC management is closely coordinating implementation of the broader S&T matrix with other laboratories and BASO.

5. BASO/SC: The laboratory and contractor leadership must ensure that all communication with interested stakeholders on DOE/SC program priorities/objectives are aligned with DOE/SC goals, strategies, and guidance. (Objective 4.4)

Status: The SLAC senior management team (SMT) communicates and engages with stakeholders, both internally and externally, through a series of regularly scheduled formal meetings to maintain alignment with DOE/SC program priorities. The SLAC laboratory director meets weekly with the Stanford vice president for SLAC and BASO to assure that leadership at SLAC, Stanford, and BASO are aligned on priorities for the lab. The SLAC laboratory director maintains daily face-to-face communications with the senior leadership as well as a bi-weekly SMT meeting to set priorities, communicate status, and resolve issues. The monthly Project Management Assurance Group (PMAG) review chaired by the Office of Project Management (OPM) provides monthly internal review of project performance across all the projects at the lab. PMAG provides insight into issues affecting project performance that require the attention of lab leadership.


Concern: Propagation of quality assurance requirements is limited so far to some of the construction projects.

o Mitigation: A plan for rolling out the requirements and the training lab wide is being formulated.



GOAL 5: Sustain Excellence and Enhance Effectiveness of Integrated Safety, Health, and Environmental Protection


Elements in Support of 5.1 – Provide an Efficient and Effective Health and Safety Program

SLAC continues to enhance and improve the effectiveness of our Health & Safety (H&S) Program. With increased attention toward integrated safety management (ISM), WPC, and feedback and improvement, SLAC’s implementation of HPI techniques and tools continues to grow. The latter half of this period was overrun by the events associated with the COVID-19 Pandemic. ESH took on a major role advising the lab population on Occupational Health issues and overseeing crisis management and response activities (see Goal 8).

HPI and WPC

SLAC Project Managers, Field Construction Managers (FCM), and ESH coordinators are trending HPI-related observations on construction projects.

Training: An additional 150 SLAC employees (300 total) have attended Course 431, HPI Tools for Workers.

Safety readiness: reviews were conducted for energizations for Cryoplant C1, LCLS-II CP3, and B950 NEH reconfiguration projects.

Management support: SMT actively supports and encourages HPI, as evidenced by its inclusion at numerous directorate all-hands meetings and newsletters.

Work planning: LCLS-II has increased management walkarounds and employee engagement in work planning.

IH/Safety

Conducted noise studies to estimate the noise levels that might be experienced by our nearest off-site neighbors during SLAC cryogenic tank operations under similar atmospheric conditions. A bulk storage tank was cooled down from 10/22/2019 to 10/23/2019 and partially filled with nitrogen on the second day. No noise above daytime, work week ambient noise levels were measured or observed by personnel at the off-site location during this study.

Training

Developed and launched two new courses:

o Course 172, Compressed Gas Safety Training. This course is mandatory for staff who handle and use compressed gas cylinders or who attach pressure regulators to compressed gas cylinders; the course content focuses on safe use and handling.

o Course 193, Wildfire Smoke Protection Training. Targeted to inform employees who work outside for >1 hour during a wildfire smoke event with an AQI >150, the course is in compliance with CAL OSHA Title 8, section 5141.1, Protection from Wildfire Smoke.

o Developed and launched Course 173, Materials Handling, an in-house video initiative developed to encourage discussion and best practices on the importance of WPC during material handling. Views to date: ~160 employees as of February 25, 2020.

Ergonomics

Coordinated and assisted with the completion the DOE Site Office Assessment of SLAC’s Industrial Ergonomics Program; the assessment identified two L2 findings (non-conformance), seven L3 findings (improvement opportunities) and two strengths; findings and corrective actions were entered into SLAC Issues and Improvements Management System (SIIMS) for tracking to completion.

As a result of the mass teleworking effort beginning in March, ESH implemented virtual town halls to provide specific ergonomic training to more than 150 employees, and SLAC’s ergonomist is providing remote workplace ergonomic assessments.

Radiation Protection

Supported long downtime activities including:

o Installation completed for LCLS-II electron dumps and ALARA review of ts extraction tests

o Verification of installation of safety systems



o Upgrades of major low-conductivity water (LCW) HX systems

o FACET-II and Sector 0-10 and EIC operation

o Provided radiological coverage for radiography at cryoplant

Supported SLAC accelerator facility operations:

o SSRL start up, safety analysis tests of new lower emittance mode of SPEAR3 ring, design and commissioning of BL17 and BL16, and SSRL RAM experiments

o MEC laser on gas target experiment

o Next Linear Collider Test Accelerator (NLCTA) and Knowledge Transfer Research Laboratory (KTLAB)

Supported safety design for: LCLS-II VTL penetration and S10 adit shielding; L2SI beamlines of NEH1.1 and NEH2.2; LCLS-II-HE; and two projects, SLAC Petawatt Laser Facility and DASEL.

Developed and implemented multiple new software applications1 for area dosimeter deployment; on track to complete radiological survey management, which, once fully implemented, will significantly reduce data entry errors and person-hours of labor.

Upgraded or replaced multiple types of instrumentation and computer hardware in preparation for LCLS-II operation2; the new systems improve connectivity, data collection and reporting time, and enable the use of modern wireless hardware, software, and peripherals for radiological monitoring of workplaces and public areas.

Completed review/approval for new laser operations at SSRL BL15-2.

Conducted a DOE-wide laser safety survey for laser workers and supervisors for comparison with similar surveys completed in 2015 and 2018.

Elements in Support of 5.2 – Provide Efficient and Effective Environmental Management System

Environmental Restoration

Submitted the Draft Risk Management Plan to the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board (Water Board) for review two months ahead of schedule.

LCLS-II Support:

o Installed 3 new “sentry” wells for LCLS-II near the End Beam Dump and the Beam Switch Yard.

o Presented monitoring plan to stakeholders, including Stanford and the Water Board, which was verbally accepted and will be submitted to the Water Board for formal approval in a revised sampling and analysis plan.

Linac Penetration Leak Project: Developed a Conceptual Site Model (CSM) to help understand where leaking water that may damage new cryomodules may be coming from so that potential solutions can be identified; detailed cross sections of the subsurface were prepared.

230kV Vegetation Management Program

Completed CY19 tree removal/pruning, which included actions on 238 trees, 203 of which were removed. The average height of removed trees was >50 feet, with many removals including complex logistics due to their proximity to creeks, roads, other utility lines, SLAC’s lines, other trees, and, in one case, a very sensitive archeological site.

Developed offline version of the GIS database to be used in the field for managing tree cutting operations more accurately and efficiently.

Storm and Industrial Waste Water Programs

Passed annual inspections: Silicon Valley Clean Water District inspected SLAC’s industrial wastewater program and San Mateo County CUPA inspected SLAC’s Stormwater Program; no issues were identified.

Developed an online system to help facilitate lab managers’ use at the Arrillaga Science Center of SLAC’s sink disposal program for disposal of approved non-hazardous lab wastes.

1 Visual Survey Data System, Dosimeter Exchange App (Dosi_Xchange for iOS).

2 Eberline RM-25 with Ludlum 3276. FHT Moveable Station. Laptop PCs (4) and tablet (1) for field use replacing 13 legacy laptops. HPI Model 6060.



Completed required storm water sampling for the 2019-20 wet season; results showed there were no exceedances.

Updated SLAC’s Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan (SWPPP) and submitted required information that resulted in reduced sampling frequency (and associated costs).

Completed monthly storm water inspections and submitted service requests for areas needing to improve storm water best management practices.

Air Program

Obtained a permit limit increase for the Vertrel degreaser used at the Plating Shop.

Obtained the Permit to Operate for the new diesel generator to be located at IR2.

Completed annual emissions testing of F&O’s gasoline dispensing facility and the triennial testing of the Plating Shop’s sludge dryer; results showed there were no exceedances.

Worked with forklift custodians to manage forklift usage in compliance with California Air Resources Board (CARB) regulations.

Natural Resource Program

Coordinated biologist site visit of cryoplant bio retention ponds to determine potential jurisdictional status to inform on siting locations being considered for the future cryo-maintenance building.

Conducted Sector 8 drainage outfall site visit to investigate wetland in support of F&O outfall cleanup.

Completed first draft of biological protection manual, a document being developed to support SLAC’s wildlife protection program.

Environmental Management System (EMS) and Sustainability

Completed the annual senior management review of the EMS for FY20; obtained score of “green” on the annual EMS scorecard.

Completed the air quality and waste sections of the annual Site Sustainability Plan and Consolidated Energy Data Report (CEDR).

Successfully hosted SLAC’s 2nd Swap Event, which yielded a $9,800 in savings by reusing supplies.

National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)

A NEPA review flow chart for environmental assessments was developed and incorporated into the NEPA implementation procedure; the flow chart facilitates implementation of NEPA program by projects.

Outreach

ESH hosted the first SLAC facilities tour for 40 CUPA workshop participants that included CUPA inspectors, regulatory agency representatives, Sandia ESH staff, and others. The tour resulted in the lab receiving “great” reviews, and participants spoke highly of SLAC’s very well-managed operations and history of compliance.

Hazardous and Radioactive Waste Management

Approval for new Low level radioactive waste (LLRW) disposal site: following a 3-year effort by Radiation Protection (RP) Department staff and with BASO support, SLAC obtained a DOE Authorized Limit Release and the State of Idaho approval to dispose of LLRW at US Ecology in Idaho. This will result in significant savings (up to 33%) per shipment of LLRW.

Beam Dump East and Lower Salvage Yard legacy cleanup: cleanup continues, thereby reducing future legacy costs, opening areas for alternative uses, and removing hazardous and radioactive materials from the environment.

Plating Shop: completed the tiered permitting update with the Onsite Hazardous Waste Treatment Annual Report and Certificate of Financial Assurance.

Medical waste: successful 2020 CUPA external Medical Waste Inspection; achieved 100% compliance; provided significant support and collaboration for bio-waste compliance operations for Cryo-EM, the Arrillaga Science Center, and SSRL.

Hazardous and Class-II waste shipments: shipped (Oct 2019-Feb 2020) 1,422,946 kg hazardous and Class-II wastes off-site safely and without incident or compliance issues.



Waste management: enhanced housekeeping in waste storage areas, machine shops, and research labs was supported by promoting hazardous waste compliance responsibilities, and increasing field-focused hazardous waste management and minimization training; required hazardous waste training is at a 99% completion level, with a goal of maintaining 100%.

Waste minimization: supported waste minimization by reusing and/or recycling various waste streams and implementing a more robust waste classification.

Effectiveness of these efforts is demonstrated by the significant reduction of hazardous wastes: 26% reduction was achieved from 2018-19, and FY20 (to date) is on target to achieve >25% reduction; this reduction continues despite an increase in both laboratory program diversification and number of chemical laboratories.

Chemical Management

Conducted hazmat field verifications to validate and minimize the inventory of old and expired chemicals, with an emphasis on time-sensitive chemicals.

To ensure the safe delivery of chemicals and reduce safety and environmental risks, the Chemical Management System (CMS) program audits all chemical delivery providers at least once per year. In addition, ESH audits at least four delivery providers per year against their WPC folders and Job Safety Analysis (JSAs); three such audits have been conducted to date.

Reduced hazardous chemicals risks by evaluating FY18 and FY19 chemical usage data obtained from CMS to identify pollution prevention opportunities through chemical substitutions, process changes, or operational changes. The CMS model provides a win-win solution to a fundamental problem in the purchase of chemicals because the incentives of a chemical supplier and the buyer are aligned by changing the role and relationship of the chemical supplier to one of a service provider:

o On-time delivery rate of chemicals: 90 percent (goal was 90%)

o Chemical cost reduction: 14% annual average (goal was 5%)

o Acceptance rate (appropriate product quality and specification delivered to the right location): 90% (goal was 95%)

o Mission critical gas deliveries: met the 90% acceptance goal

o Shrinkage (materials damaged or lost in storage or shipment): 2% (goal was 5%)

o Scrap and obsolescence rate (expired inventory stocked at the service provider versus total value of the inventory held for SLAC): 0.5% (goal was <10%)

Provided support to LBNL during their chemical management review.


1. BASO: Develop and execute plan to implement the 10 CFR 851 Permanent Variance utilizing CAL OSHA as the worker health and safety standard for the laboratory. (Objective 5.1)

Status: Review and subsequent revisions to H&S programs are underway to address the transition of SLAC’s 10 CFR 851 WSHP to the Cal-OSHA based IIPP. Revisions to the SLAC ESH Manual and associated training materials are in progress. Chapters ready for review have been sent to BASO for concurrence. Ongoing meetings with both the Legal and Procurement departments continue to ensure subcontractor and service contracts are updated when needed and vendor outreach strategies are developed. Close collaboration with LBNL continues.


Concern: Ensuring adequate resources to meet needs.

o Mitigation: Assigned sufficient staff to ensure that all affected H&S programs are reviewed and updated as needed; continually track progress; use consultants or subcontractors as needed.

Concern: Ensuring contractual and procurement needs and vendor outreach strategies are identified and addressed.

o Mitigation: Ongoing collaboration meetings with Procurement and Legal departments.

Concern: Impacts and ESH considerations of COVID-19 Pandemic.

o Mitigation: ESH taking a leading role in developing social distancing, sanitation, personal protection, and occupational health processes for eventual restart of operations.



GOAL 6: Deliver Efficient, Effective, and Responsive Business Systems and Resources that Enable the Successful Achievement of the Laboratory Mission(s)


Elements in Support of 6.1 – Provide an Efficient, Effective, and Responsive Financial Management System(s)

Online dashboard of key financial indicators provided to SMT. The library of standard financial reports available in the dashboard expanded to include additional SMT focus areas. Examples of new reports added include tech transfer data, leave trends, Service Center demand, amongst others.

Progress with the Financial Management Assurance (FMA)/A123 pilot program includes prototyping several data analytic controls that proved effective in identifying potential control issues. Quarterly updates to DOE HQ have been completed.

SLAC is undertaking a major PeopleSoft Image Upgrade project during FY20 that will ensure compatibility and compliance with the latest Oracle bug fixes and system improvements.

SLAC’s travel policy has been updated in line with the Site Compliance Plan for DOE Order 550.1, Official Travel. This update provides further efficiencies (including a wide use of the SLAC Travel Card), compliance, and Duty of Care.

RWG Model Contract Implementation Benefits The ability to use AI in monitoring and testing controls is an example of DOE’s willingness to relieve some contractual

requirements that are very labor intensive, provided a higher level of performance through alternative means can be demonstrated. This approach I believe was informed by the RWG.

Elements in Support of 6.2 – Provide an Efficient, Effective, and Responsive Acquisition Management System and Property Management System Procurement

Our quarterly compliance reviews are averaging 90%, which is right at our goal.

Trending is well ahead of our goals for socio-economic and cost savings requirements; currently socio-economic spend is 69% of a 41% target, while strategic and other savings combined is ~15% of 8% target.

Competition rate for >SAT is currently at 90%. Although not required, we are measuring competition rate <SAT as well and we are currently hitting 75%.

Property Control

Property Control is on track to meet or exceed property control metrics. Of note, we reissued 77 items of furniture, hardware, and parts worth an estimated $12,000 cost savings to SLAC.

Property Control had its first assessment since 2014. Results show we are in fairly good shape with a few findings; the Corrective Action Plan was finalized in late Q4 of FY19, and we are making good progress on corrective actions.

Shipping/Receiving

Shipping & Receiving is metric driven and we are meeting our goal to maintain 98% on-time deliveries.

RWG Model Contract Implementation Benefits

Positive Audit Report from the OIG on the impact of the RWG. Nothing came to their attention to indicate that the contract reform efforts have increased risk at SLAC or materially changed the DOE’s Federal oversight. Specifically, “we found that contract reform efforts did not appear to negatively impact SLAC’s operations in the areas of health and safety, safeguards and security, human resources, and procurement functions.”

Elements in Support of 6.3 – Provide an Efficient, Effective, and Responsive Human Resources Management System and Diversity Program Performance Management and Talent Development

Senior management and Human Resources together took additional time to re-evaluate our priorities and processes for talent planning and leadership development to ensure future lab needs can be met. We have spent strategic planning



efforts focused on talent discussions across directorates, determining how to better leverage our existing tools and resources to enhance: career conversations; evaluation of talent and potential; and strategy for assigning stretch and special project assignments associated with lab-level priorities and activities to high potentials. We are incorporating use of annual business plans to help inform our needs.

Launched a tool that provides descriptions for career progression at six levels for both scientists and engineers, and it will be used as a guideline for appointments, promotions, and career development planning and discussion going forward. In addition, the mission areas are beginning to incorporate streamlining the use of CVs/resumes in conjunction with career conversations and talent planning process to help inform individual development plan activities.

We are continuing to leverage leadership development programs and resources from Stanford. SLAC continues engagement in Stanford’s long-range planning task force, explicitly working to establish frameworks and make recommendations to improve professional and leadership development. The task force is preparing to introduce frameworks to university/lab this quarter.

We have begun a renewed focus on manager capability by reframing the use of our management all-hands meetings to be more relevant and useful, as well as establishing “Management 101” for training and education that all managers will be encouraged to use. This will be an evolving library of recommended and/or mandatory training to ensure managers are equipped with a consistent foundation of knowledge to apply. This links to culture as well, in that we are reinforcing the critical role managers and leaders play at not only role-modeling respectful and inclusive behaviors, but also practicing skills to respond to behaviors and engage with employees in a way that ultimately grows our people’s capabilities.

Culture and Diversity

Sharing visibility to our annual DOE-SC Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) plan, the SMT, together with Human Resources, is identifying D&I goals that support our D&I strategic objectives to focus on in FY20 and FY21. These goals and actions include: supporting and leveraging employee resource groups (ERGs) more; ensuring diverse high potential talent have meaningful Individual Development Plan (IDPs); enhancing our use of bias mitigation in the interview panel preparation process and hiring decisions; serving as mentors; exploring how to build grad student talent pipeline; and continually fostering discussion with staff about inclusive behaviors. Additional measures for accountability include annual incentive performance goals for senior management members to engage diversity and actively support an inclusive culture.

SLAC helped coordinate – and participated in – an inaugural multi-laboratory Bay Area ERG leadership summit to foster cross-lab collaboration and learning.

SLAC launched its Respectful Workplace Commitment statement and provided a reference card to each employee in order to reinforce both SLAC’s commitment as well as key behaviors at the individual level for supporting such an environment. Working with Communications, a lab-level webpage is planned for improving visibility of progress and activities focused on fostering a respectful and inclusive workplace.

We also are placing continuous emphasis across the lab on the importance of an inclusive and respectful workplace to foster an environment that both attracts and retains diverse talent.

SLAC-wide training for 1) Respectful Workplace and 2) Bystander Training has been implemented. To date, 8 sessions have been held, with a total enrollment of 202 attendees. More sessions will be scheduled for this summer.

State-mandated non-supervisor sexual harassment prevention training will be provided to SLAC employees via in-person training sessions, in coordination with Stanford. Two sessions are planned for March and two more in the fall. Increased discussion initiated by managers with their workgroup is helping to increase awareness. Resources for these discussions and activities are provided and facilitated by Human Resources.


Continuing to partner with Stanford to ensure our use of systems and processes that require interdependencies are smooth and identify barriers to efficiency.

New compensation manager building relationship with DOE Site Office and campus counterparts to become familiar with SLAC’s use of the Stanford Compensation Program.

Implementing Employee Concerns Program through Stanford’s resources to maintain neutral, effective resources and channels for individuals to raise concerns and to prevent redundancy and inefficiency.



Elements in Support of 6.4 – Provide an Efficient, Effective, and Responsive Contractor Assurance System (CAS), including Internal Audit and Quality Operations Assurance

Training for users of the new Integrated Assessment System (IAS) is underway with completion planned in June 2020. The new tool will make execution and tracking of assessments much more efficient.

In coordination with IT, the SLAC risk manager has developed the Enterprise Risk Management System (ERMS) requirements document to automate the development, analysis, maintenance and tracking of risks identified at SLAC by mission and mission support groups. The ERMS will be reviewed by the Operations Council in Q3FY20, and planned development of the software will be completed by the end of Q1FY21.

CACM continues to provide significant support to all projects and especially LCLS-II to assist in the investigation and analysis of serious issues with PPS development.

CACM has been actively engaged with BASO in regular attendance at tailgate meetings to continue to improve the quality of daily planning and awareness of both contractors and SLAC employees working together to complete LCLS-II installation.

Quality

SLAC’s Quality Assurance program manager has been heavily engaged with the LCLS-II project to continue to enhance WPC rigor for installation activities to achieve technical results while ensuring the work is performed safely.

Quality Assurance has also been actively engaged with the LCLS-II-HE project in the development of Quality Specifications for cavity fabrication and support at potential suppliers. A Quality engineer has been hired by the project and will report to SLAC’s Quality Assurance program manager.

Quality Assurance is collaborating with ESH to continue to advance HPI at SLAC. This grassroots effort to provide tools that can be used to reduce the potential for errors will be expanded to provide voluntary training for managers beginning Q2FY21.

Stanford Internal Audit (IA)

Completed the 2019 audit plan and all relevant reports were issued.

As per the FY20 audit plan, IA is currently engaged in four audits and has issued the FY19 Activity report.

IA provided the quarterly follow-up status of management action plans for open observations as of December 31, 2019.

Participated in the Stanford’s SLAC Board of Overseers Finance and Audit Committee meetings, the SLAC Director’s Assurance Council (DAC) meetings, and the SLAC Integrated Assessment Plan meetings, and is a member of the A123 SLAC Steering Committee.

IA is in communication with DOE and SLAC management to continually assess SLAC’s risks and the status of ongoing audits.

Proactively interacting with DOE Office of Inspector General (IG) to foster a collaborative audit relationship.

Elements in Support of 6.5 – Demonstrate Effective Transfer of Technology and Commercialization of Intellectual Assets

Partnering with small business has increased; in FY19 SLAC had 21 active agreements with unique small businesses.

SLAC implemented a new MTA template and is working with the DOE Site Office on updating the SPP and CRADA templates.

Engagement with Bay Area Labs has increased in SLAC’s effort to seek cross functional inter-lab engagement, including leveraging PI Entrepreneurial Training planned for fall FY21.

With participation in DIVERSE – the OTT funded PACT project to evaluate the diversity of the research community against the IP Disclosure and Patent records – SLAC intends to enhance the support provided to the underrepresented research population.


SLAC implemented the intent of DOE Policy 485.1 regarding foreign engagements by evaluating and updating the risk review process which evaluates foreign partners/sponsor against the science and technology risk matrix.



Elements in Support of OSTI – Progress on Comprehensive Collection and Submission of Peer-Reviewed Accepted Manuscripts from DOE-Funded Research to DOE PAGES Portal

Through the first half of FY20, SLAC is on track to meet/exceed the 85% compliance goal. Consistently meeting compliance reflects SLAC’s strong science and technical information (STI) program. This includes a dedicated STI manager with strong relationships and ties to the science community who is engaged in communicating, training, and advising SLAC’s science groups to report all accepted manuscripts associated with their DOE-funded research. Tools have been provided to facilitate reporting, with the most recent focus on utilizing solutions provided by the DOE Office of Science and Technical Information (OSTI).

SLAC has excelled in the area of submitting associated metadata to OSTI. The OSTI director formally acknowledged the quality and thoroughness of the work performed by SLAC’s STI manager.

Beyond accepted manuscript reporting, SLAC has also worked with OSTI on implementing features and fields in their applications to facilitate other publication reporting that is important to various science groups, thus further enabling and supporting science. Examples of these efforts include:

o Ongoing work with the travel department to identify conference participants presenting STI and report to OSTI.

o OSTI has requested that SLAC’s STI manager present at the 2020 DOE Scientific and Technical Information Program (STIP) Working Meeting to be held the second week in April at Argonne. The agenda includes describing some of SLACs best practices, with a focus on inclusion of the STI question in the Concur travel system, since OSTI feels all national labs could benefit from understanding how this was accomplished.

o Accepted manuscripts submissions have increased via the E-link DOE STI management wizard.

o Migrated the unreported STIs from SLAC’s reporting database and brought them into compliance.

o SLAC has produced over 28,022 STI records; these are publicly available on DOE-OSTI site. (https://www.osti.gov/search/site-code:SLAC)


1. BASO: Implement additional tools and techniques for performance management through metrics to ensure all financial transactions are subject to rigorous internal controls that are effective and efficient. (Objective 6.1)

Status: SLAC has implemented use of automated controls as part of our internal control testing. Notable accomplishments are in the area of quickly identifying duplicate payments; our automated control testing caught two in a very timely manner, allowing SLAC to recoup the duplicate payments. Metrics have been developed for almost all of our functional areas to highlight performance.


Concern: Business impacts of COVID-19 Pandemic

o Mitigation: processes are being developed and implemented to account for financial and operational impacts of the pandemic and recovery that will occur during the second half of the FY.

https://www.osti.gov/search/site-code:SLAC



GOAL 7: Sustain Excellence in Acquiring, Constructing, Operating, Maintaining and Renewing the Facility and Infrastructure Portfolio to Meet Laboratory Needs


Elements in Support of 7.1 – Manage Facilities and Infrastructure in an Efficient and Effective Manner that Optimizes Usage, Minimizes Life Cycle Costs and Ensures Site Capability to Meet Mission Needs

SLAC continues to make great strides in refining and cultivating infrastructure operations and stewardship by delivering various direct, indirect, and science laboratory infrastructure (SLI) projects throughout FY20.

Strong stewardship of our electrical and mechanical systems resulted in significantly increased operational reliability. We achieved substantial completion of an $8.8 million SLI General Plant Projects (GPP) to upgrade the LCW system that supplies LCW to the eastern portion of the lab. The project was completed on time and on budget, replaced end-of-life equipment, improved system reliability, and decoupled multiple systems to enable operations and maintenance, all while causing minimal interruptions to science run time. SLAC completed a project that replaced degraded 50+ year old linac cooling water laterals, and performed major maintenance of Cooling Tower 101 to address our highest risks to our mechanical systems.

SLAC has greatly improved electrical infrastructure safety. We installed fault protection relays on DOE’s 230kV line that supplies incoming power to the site. A recent retrofit of the variable voltage substation (VVS) breaker panel in the linac installed infrared inspection windows to provide a safe method to inspect faulty breakers without dismantling the breaker covers and risking arc flash. During winter downtime, we safely performed critical maintenance at the master substation and B50S substation, thereby reducing risks.

Project managers and field construction managers dedicated support to several LCLS-II and infrastructure projects: cryoplant fit-out, cryomodule installation, cryogenic distribution system, NEH reconfiguration, cable plant, heat exchanger Hx2 and Hx5 upgrades, electron beam dump (EBD) building and equipment upgrades, NEH roof repairs, fiber installation, groundwater suppression and mitigation above the LCLS EBD, groundwater suppression and mitigation above the beam switchyard EBD, sealing dampening rings, substation 519S, replace existing chiller at S0, B136 site preparation, and linac housing penetration leak mitigations.

With two buildings achieving new certifications, SLAC now has seven High Performance Sustainable Building (HPSB)-compliant buildings. The Photon Science Laboratory Building (PSLB) and the new cryoplant both earned federal HPSB standards in January 2020. PSLB ($57.0 SLI-LI) achieved US Green Building Council’s highest certification of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum on February 13, 2020. This certification demonstrates SLAC’s commitment to incorporate more efficient equipment and materials resources when compared to buildings built to conventional code.

Elements in Support of 7.2 – Provide Planning for and Acquire the Facilities and Infrastructure Required to Support the Continuation and Growth of Laboratory Mission and Programs

Science research and discovery for current DOE programs and emerging mission areas are directly enabled by investments in laboratory infrastructure. SLAC successfully completed a $6.4M laboratory fit out that included four new transmission electron microscope rooms engineered for protection from interference caused by acoustics, vibration, fluctuations in temperature or humidity, and electromagnetic signals. The project reached substantial completion in January 2020 and was delivered on time, within budget (<2.5% cost growth), and with no safety incidents. Further improvements were implemented at the end of March to bring on an additional scanning electron microscope that will enhance the ability to conduct COVID-19-related research.

Large Scale Collaboration Center (LSCC) achieved CD-1 ESAAB on November 19, 2019. We are currently planning a CD-3A package for site preparation, including several remote parking lots and demolition of six trailers also located within LSCC’s footprint. The project also commenced the design guidelines and performance specifications in order to provide our Design-Build Request for Proposal package to procure our subcontractor in FY22 and complete in FY24.

SLAC started planning for the Critical Utilities Infrastructure Revitalization (CUIR) (SLI-LI) request, whose mission is reducing risks and closing capability gaps identified in SLAC’s infrastructure condition assessments, studies, and surveys for the following infrastructure: stormwater, sanitary sewer, domestic water/fire protection, electrical, and various cooling water systems. The project modernizes and replaces SLAC’s utilities, many of which were installed in the 1960s as part of initial laboratory construction and are now beyond useful life, suffer from parts obsolescence, or were not designed to support experimental parameters needed for current and future science research. The project cost range is $80M to $189M and targets approximately $20M to $30M in deferred maintenance. This above work will be used in our CD-1 Independent Project Review to assist in gaining CUIR’s CD-1 ESAAB in FY22.



We further improved an in-house geographic information system (GIS) that overlays facility condition assessment data for utility systems, including sanitary and storm sewers, electrical, gas, domestic water, and building envelope. This product improves our understanding the condition assessment impacts on current and future operations in order to prioritize future projects. Layering Facilities Information Management System (FIMS) data onto the GIS enables facilities planners and operators to track FIMS data trends in order to arrive at more strategic decisions for planned investments. The FIMS data is also the foundation of linear segmentation efforts, which targets the ability to isolate campus regions in future utility projects. This process supports our effort in developing a site utility master plan for the future CUIR SLI-LI project.


1. BASO/SC: Effectively plan, execute, and successfully deliver SC projects equal to or less than $50 million that have been delegated to the Laboratory Director by SC under DOE O 413.3B [FACET-II and Super Cryogenic Dark Matter Search]. Clearly demonstrate successful accomplishment of all work planned for FY20 in accordance with SC guidance. (Objective 7.1)

Status: OPM continues to support major construction projects, both scientific and infrastructure, with project controls support. The office also provides training and support for project managers. The office oversees the implementation and application of the Conduct of Project Management, which prescribes a graded approach to projects below $50M – SLAC’s threshold for projects managed without directly assessing SC-OPA and fully applying Project Management Order 413b. In addition, OPM, in partnership with the laboratory’s chief engineer and Contractor Assurance Office, is working with the directorates on a self-assessment regarding the implementation of the Conduct of Engineering and Conduct of Project Management policies. Lastly, PMAG meets monthly and provides the laboratory with a regular risk assessment of all ongoing projects.

2. BASO/SC: Develop an integrated set of key requirements and associated milestones to support the comprehensive set of general site-wide and programmatic specific infrastructure projects to support the front-end planning and prioritization of the Lab’s capability gaps. (Objective 7.1)

Status: SLAC has developed – and continues to refresh – key infrastructure requirements and required timeframes/ milestones for all general site-wide infrastructure and science programmatic projects to enable our science missions. Required infrastructure for LCLS-II is complete, with LCLS-II-HE requirements development underway, including the Cryomodule Repair and Maintenance Facility. Cryo-EM growth is fully supported by space and lab improvements in B006 and B057. An extensive list of infrastructure projects is identified for a phased profile on CUIR and Institutional General Plant Projects (IGPP) investments to address capability gaps.

3. BASO: SLAC plans and implements the lessons learned from the PSLB project to proactively improve project and subcontractor management. (Objective 7.2)

Status: In Progress. Contractor Assurance and Contract Management, the Office of Project Management, Procurement, Design and Construction Services, and the current PSLB project manager worked together with BASO to identify the top five PSLB lessons learned and develop related actions. We are in the process of distributing these lessons to the lab and providing training sessions to proactively improve overall project and subcontractor management on all projects.


Concern: Volume of civil infrastructure projects, schedules tied to downtime windows, and co-occupancy of contractors and SLAC personnel, has resulted in increased complexity and pressure, with concomitant increases in risk to safety, quality, and schedule.

o Mitigation: SLAC’s Design and Construction Services (DCS) division hired and onboarded three project managers in FY20. As active construction work has subsided following PSLB completion and LCLS-II progress, the current FCM staffing levels are sufficient for planned workload.

• A construction cost estimator was brought on in FY20, resulting in improved and timely estimates. DCS has additional project engineering and project management positions open and is culling applicants for top talent.

• Training and team-building for the project and construction management team are a focus this year. Project and construction management manuals were refreshed in 2019, with follow-on training implementation underway this year. Team members completed additional project management training focused on the cross-functional project delivery team. PMs will be afforded the opportunity to participate



in future DOE OPA 413.3b project reviews. Additional training on EVMS, CAM, 413.3B, and collaboration opportunities with other DOE PM professionals are planned for FY20.

Concern: Projectshave continued to be challenged by local subcontractor labor shortages and significantly higher construction bids. The resulting shortage of construction subcontractors and labor have negatively impacted project schedules, quality of workmanship, and budgets.

o Mitigation: SLAC continues to actively reach out to vendors to better understand subcontractor concerns that lead to higher costs and seek vendor feedback on strategies to draw greater interest in SLAC opportunities. SLAC is considering various acquisition strategies for attracting additional subcontractors and is implementing planning systems and tools that lead to schedule success, such as the system used to meet milestones for the medium low voltage revitalization project.

Further focus is being applied to improved quality assurance oversight mechanisms to ensure contractors perform quality work. This is in response to several projects that have highlighted quality control issues involving construction contractors and their subs, especially in the area of electrical work (e.g., crossed wires).

Concern: Significant risks remain that affect the resiliency of the electrical power system, including: lack of redundant sources with enough capacity; single points of failure (i.e., linac LV feeder cables and substation 519S); forecast of increased future loading on 60kV service; and low power quality.

o Mitigation: Repairs to temporary feeders installed in the linac and the first phase of substation 519S are scheduled for later this year.

SLAC continues to pursue the comprehensive CUIR SLI project with an intended CD-1 in FY21. The full scope of this project will be determined by a utility master plan and include electrical, mechanical, and civil systems.

SLAC is also performing a preliminary investigation into the employment of a static VAR compensator and harmonic filter at the master substation to mitigate power quality issues and meet the minimum power factor rating as part of the PG&E interconnect agreement.

Concern: Significant turnover and growth within F&O over the last two years has resulted in an insufficient level of knowledge transfer through training or a full spectrum of established and documented standard processes.

o Mitigation: DCS refreshed the project and construction management manuals in 2019, and continues to improve processes and workflows, implement the project workflows into a new project management software system, and train and mentor new team members on these processes.



GOAL 8: Sustain and Enhance the Effectiveness of Integrated Safeguards and Security Management (ISSM) and Emergency Management Systems


Elements in Support of 8.1 – Provide an Efficient and Effective Emergency Management System SLAC continues to enhance its emergency management system. FY20 highlights include:

Ongoing work with LCLS-II project to update the current radio infrastructure.

Developed preplans for emergency systems for the new cryoplant and other lab areas.

Participated in two DOE accountability drills with 100% of staff reporting in; will continue to participate in quarterly drills.

Coordinating with Menlo Park Fire Protection District (MPFPD) on 2020 familiarization tours of the SLAC site for fire and other responders, and will participate in a week-long active shooter exercise that will involve multiple fire/law enforcement agencies.

Conducted tours of accelerator housings with all SLAC security/Emergency Medical Team staff; highlighted emergency response and first aid actions, entrance and exit points, and hazards perspective, including radiological hazards.

Held walkthrough exercise with SSRL duty operators and RP personnel to familiarize actions similar to the incident stated below.

Tested radiological emergency drill this period in response to a containment breach of a radioactive sample during an experiment at SSRL; effective and timely actions and response by users and SSRL and RP personnel – all of whom followed their training and existing procedures – resulted in containment of the breach and securing the experimental hutch with no personnel or area contamination.

Business Continuity Plan (BCP) Program

Currently 77 unique directorate/division BCPs were last updated February 2019; however, many are updated on an ongoing, real-time basis as changes occur.

Planning participation in the April 2020 DOE-wide exercise, with implementation the BCP program as part of the exercise.

Created Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS) Committee to focus on preplanning for all areas of the lab as well as internal and external communications and alerts.

Developed lab-wide master checklist and schedule for the periods leading up to and after a power shutoff with special focus on facilities and IT shutdown and restart plans, generator plans, and mission critical science special needs.

Collaborated with other DOE Bay Area labs on the 2019 PSPS lessons learned and grid resiliency.

Held an Emergency Operations Center PSPS exercise validating plans/schedule and providing lessons learned for preplan improvements.

Beginning in February, SLAC activated its emergency response system to address the impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Initial planning to curtail operations was changed in short order by the County and State Shelter-in-Place actions. Within 24 hours, SLAC successfully reduced operations to a minimum state, prioritizing actions to safely support COVID-related research activities and maintain basic infrastructure to protect lab assets to allow for a successful future restart.

Elements in Support of 8.2 – Provide an Efficient and Effective System for Cyber Security for the Protection of Classified and Unclassified Information Cyber security is a vital element that protects SLAC’s mission and therefore receives strong support and oversight from the laboratory’s leadership and the BASO Site Office. The cyber security program presents, educates, and communicates several times per year to executive management, the Stanford’s SLAC Board of Overseers, and the Internal Review Board. This process provides a mechanism to present on risk and the direction of the program, as well as gathering feedback on its strategy and roadmap. Cyber security risk is monitored through monthly metrics and quarterly updates to the DAC and the DOE Office of Science, which aggregates the cyber risks.

SLAC strives to maintain a highly effective cyber security incident response process and plan, which includes coordination activities with DOE integrated Joint Cybersecurity Coordination Center (iJC3) and Stanford. SLAC Cyber Security investigated and resolved over 710 possible cyber security issues since the start of FY20 and reported 13 issues that met threshold requirements to DOE iJC3.



In FY20 several program assessments were conducted:

In Q2, an Internal Review Board consisting of cyber and IT executives from other national laboratories and Stanford was convened to evaluate SLAC’s cyber security program and ensure it meets or exceeds DOE requirements. The panel provided positive recommendation to the DOE Site Office stating that SLAC Cyber Security continues to meet DOE requirements.

Completed resolving the last audit finding from the 2015 Enterprise Assessment review of the SLAC cyber security program; this required systems accessing the network via VPN met minimum security requirements – which was work previously completed – and consolidating and upgrading the visitor network and implementing restrictions of GFE devices on the visitor network.

Ongoing: SLAC is working with the OIG, who is conducting an audit covering general IT controls, business process application controls, vulnerability assessment, and a FISMA system review of several applications including PeopleSoft, HCM, and general FISMA metrics.

Completed an assessment on ServiceNow as part of its re-authorization lifecycle to ensure it meets cyber security requirements.

The cyber security program continues to instill into laboratory culture that cyber security and safety is everyone’s responsibility. Cyber awareness activities included:

Ongoing phishing awareness training exercises, which continue to deliver user awareness training to identify potential phishing attacks and encourage users to report such attacks to Cyber Security.

Cyber Security presented at the laboratory Safety and Security Fair, which coincided with Cyber Security Awareness month, in order to enhance awareness of cyber security threats and promote a proper response to the threat.

The cyber security program is executing on its roadmap to make significant improvements in preventative cyber security while ensuring we are aligned with industry standard solutions and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) directives.

Remediated 20 critical vulnerabilities through its web application security program, which completed scanning of all of SLAC’s public facing websites.

SLAC completed its implementation of the web application portion of the DHS Binding Operational Directive 18-01, which requires improvements to website security. We have completed migrating public-facing websites behind the web application firewall.

Cyber Security collaborated with the SLAC LSST team on the creation of SLAC’s proposal “Hosting the US LSST Data Facility at SLAC.” This process ensured that best cyber security practices are included in the design phase while also fostering a partnership that will enable the program to conduct their business in a secure manner.

SLAC hired a cyber analyst to bring additional cyber capabilities and expand bench strength, notwithstanding a highly competitive job market.


Leveraged Stanford-provided tools, including web application vulnerability scanning, email security, multi-factor authentication, password manager, endpoint backup, among others. SLAC maintains a collaborative information sharing environment with Stanford’s Information Security Office, whereby teams share security incident information affecting each site.

Elements in Support of 8.3 – Provide an Efficient and Effective System for the Physical Security and Protection of Special Nuclear Materials, Classified Matter, Classified Information, Sensitive Information, and Property

Ongoing collaboration with DOE to invite the team that created the Design Basis Threat (DBT) risk assessment tool to visit SLAC and beta test the tool while assisting SLAC with completing the Security Risk Assessment (SRA) DBT.

In process: development of an automation tool for entering all foreign nationals in the FACTS system; automation will allow implementation of multiple DOE requirements using one tool.

Planning an active shooter drill for the entire security team, including EMTs and SLAC’s Emergency Response Team (SERT).

Created security alarm system protocols; currently working on developing a security alarm testing protocol/procedure for all security system alarms onsite.

Working with DOE and Legal to create a personnel security clearance program at SLAC.



Continuing training of all Security/EMT personnel with SLAC mass notification system for active threat and provide training to maintain current EMT certifications.

Improved the security of the sealed sources at the RAMSY Alcove by upgrading and increasing the number of security cameras in the area.


1. BASO: Complete funded web applications firewall upgrade projects in a timely and efficient manner. (Objective 8.2)

Status: The cyber security project deployment of the web application firewall has been completed. Identified public facing web sites were migrated behind the web application firewall.


FY20 Mid-Year SLAC Performance Evaluation and Measurement ... · investigations focus on...

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