User Resources

Quick Guide for New Users

Prior to Registering as a new user:

• When considering experiments at NSF’s ChemMatCARS facility, we strongly encourage you to contact ChemMatCARS staff and discuss feasibility of your experiments.
  Please contact the scientist from the appropriate experimental technique Contacts lists to the right of this page.
• You can find general information about our beamlines and other ChemMatCARS facilities here:
  • Scientific Program
  • Facilities
• All ChemMatCARS users have to submit their proposals through the APS General User Program (GUP).
  Be sure to review the criteria for general user proposals (GUP) and proposal FAQ.

Brief summary for new users:

Be sure to follow the APS New User Checklist

• You need to register as an APS user and submit a proposal in order to apply for ChemMatCARS beamtime.
• Your home institution has to have an User Agreement with APS.  Please follow instructions on that page to check for existing agreement or for establishing a new agreement.
• An APS proposal is considered standard if submitted before the APS deadline for a run cycle and Rapid Access if submitted after the deadline.  You can find more information about proposal submission and review here.
• Using your active APS proposal, you have to submit a beamtime request (BTR) for each APS run cycle.  You can use your active proposal to submit BTRs for several APS run cycles if needed for your project.
• Following beamtime allocation process, you will be contacted and informed if beamtime has been allocated for your proposal.
• If beamtime has been allocated, ChemMatCARS staff will contact you about scheduling your beamtime.
• Before your visit, you have to complete the APS user safety training, complete Experiment Safety Assessment Form and notify APS of your arrival by using the Gate Pass Request tab in My APS Portal.
• You can find your APS user information at My APS Portal.  More useful links for users can be found on the APS User Information.
• When your work is published, Send the Publication to the APS with a copy to Natalie Chen. Please include the NSF’s ChemMatCARS Acknowledgment Statement in your publications:

NSF’s ChemMatCARS, Sector 15 at the Advanced Photon Source (APS), Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) is supported by the Divisions of Chemistry (CHE) and Materials Research (DMR), National Science Foundation, under grant number NSF/CHE- 1834750. This research used resources of the Advanced Photon Source, a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science user facility operated for the DOE Office of Science by Argonne National Laboratory under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357.

Please Note: “ChemMatCARS” has changed to “NSF’s ChemMatCARS”. Please acknowledge “NSF’s ChemMatCARS” in publications.

Brief summary for returning users:

NSF’s ChemMatCARS, Sector 15 at the Advanced Photon Source (APS), Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) is supported by the Divisions of Chemistry (CHE) and Materials Research (DMR), National Science Foundation, under grant number NSF/CHE- 1834750. This research used resources of the Advanced Photon Source, a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science user facility operated for the DOE Office of Science by Argonne National Laboratory under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357.

Please Note: “ChemMatCARS” has changed to “NSF’s ChemMatCARS”. Please acknowledge “NSF’s ChemMatCARS” in publications.