Recently, we have joind a major collaborative effort to develop new beamlines dedicated for high-pressure materials studies at the APS. High Pressure Collaborative Access Team (HP-CAT) has been formed among leading high-pressure scientists at Carnegie Institute of Washington (Drs. Mao and Hemley), High Pressure Science Center at UNLV (Prof. Nicol), and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The HP-CAT will consist of (i) four independently working beamlines (two undulator lines and two bending magnet lines), (ii) two experimental laboratories for sample handling and optical investigation, (iii) one office module, and (iv) a team of scientific staff members who will develop, operate, and maintain the beamlines.

The HP-CAT will be an integrated science center supporting primarily (but not limited to) static high-pressure research. It will also benefit other high-pressure studies such as the characterization of materials and the development of x-ray diagnostics for shock-wave research. The materials data obtained at the HP-CAT will provide first-hand information for condensed matter theorists, accelerating new scientific discoveries and technology developments at the Laboratory as well as deliver highly accurate physics data for stockpile materials.