November 18, 2020, an inauguration ceremony and beamline evaluation of the center's Soft X-ray beamline (Beamline MCD-B) for in-situ studies of functional materials and devices took place at the National Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (NSRL), University of Science and Technology of China (USTC). This beamline is jointly constructed by the SWC and NSRL with the funding from Soochow University.

The evaluation panel of the beamline consists of Prof. Dongliang Chen from Institute of High Energy Physics, CAS, Prof. Zheng Jiang from Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, CAS, Prof. Mao Ye from Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology. In addition, Prof. Donglai Feng, Director of NSRL, Prof. Xiaosong Liu, Deputy Director of NSRL, Prof. Li Song, Assistant Director of NSRL, Qiuya Yu, Director of the Science and Technology Research Department of Soochow University, Hongxia Chen, Chief of the Equipment and Sharing Platform Management Section of the Laboratory and Equipment Management Office, and others involved in the project, also attended the inauguration Ceremony. The ceremony was chaired by Prof. Xuhui Sun, Deputy Director of SWC.

Professor Donglai Feng expressed his warm welcome to all the attendees. He pointed out that the cooperation between Soochow University and NSRL was an excellent example for the deep cooperation between Chinese light sources and universities/scientific research institutions. 

Qiuya Yu of Soochow University expressed his gratitude to the evaluation experts, the leadership of NSRL and all the researchers who participated in the construction of the beamline. Soochow University would continue to encourage cooperation between SWC and the NSRL to cultivate more outstanding talents in the field of synchrotron radiation research.

Professor Jun Zhong, Assistant Director of SWC introduced the background and motivation, construction milestones, current performance and follow-up operation plan of the beamline. Professor Wensheng Yan from NSRL gave a summary report of the beamline construction and suggested acceptance test criteria. After inquiries and discussions, the expert panel confirmed the test criteria and conducted field tests.

 The test results showed that all the technical indicators of the beamline are better than the designed indicators, and all the experts agreed that the beamline passed acceptance test. In the future the beamline will provide a high-level synchrotron radiation research platform for the users in the field of energy materials.

(Editor: Xiaoyu Jin)