Development of an advanced in-line multilayer deposition system at Diamond Light Source.

A state-of-the-art multilayer deposition system with a 4200 mm-long linear substrate translator housed within an ultra-high vacuum chamber has been developed. This instrument is engineered to produce single and multilayer coatings, accommodating mirrors up to 2000 mm in length through the utilization of eight rectangular cathodes. To ensure the quality and reliability of the coatings, the system incorporates various diagnostic tools for in situ thickness uniformity and stress measurement.

BEATS: BEAmline for synchrotron X-ray microTomography at SESAME.

The ID10 beamline of the SESAME (Synchrotron-light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East) synchrotron light source in Jordan was inaugurated in June 2023 and is now open to scientific users. The beamline, which was designed and installed within the European Horizon 2020 project BEAmline for Tomography at SESAME (BEATS), provides full-field X-ray radiography and microtomography imaging with monochromatic or polychromatic X-rays up to photon energies of 100 keV. The photon source generated by a 2.

X-ray mirrors with sub-nanometre figure errors obtained by differential deposition of thin WSi films.

Differential deposition by DC magnetron sputtering was applied to correct for figure errors of X-ray mirrors to be deployed on low-emittance synchrotron beamlines. During the deposition process, the mirrors were moved in front of a beam-defining aperture and the required velocity profile was calculated using a deconvolution algorithm. The surface figure was characterized using conventional off-line visible-light metrology instrumentation (long trace profiler and Fizeau interferometer) before and after the deposition.

ID23-2: an automated and high-performance microfocus beamline for macromolecular crystallography at the ESRF.

ID23-2 is a fixed-energy (14.2 keV) microfocus beamline at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) dedicated to macromolecular crystallography. The optics and sample environment have recently been redesigned and rebuilt to take full advantage of the upgrade of the ESRF to the fourth generation Extremely Brilliant Source (ESRF-EBS).

Thermal optimization of a high-heat-load double-multilayer monochromator.

Finite-element analysis is used to study the thermal deformation of a multilayer mirror due to the heat load from the undulator beam at a low-emittance synchrotron source, specifically the ESRF-EBS upgrade beamline EBSL-2. The energy bandwidth of the double-multilayer monochromator is larger than that of the relevant undulator harmonic, such that a considerable portion of the heat load is reflected. Consequently, the absorbed power is non-uniformly distributed on the surface.

Design simulations of a horizontally deflecting high-heat-load monochromator.

The performance of a liquid-nitrogen-cooled high-heat-load monochromator with a horizontal scattering plane has been analysed, aiming to preserve the high quality of the X-ray beam in the vertical plane for downstream optics. Using finite-element analysis, height profiles of the crystal surface for various heat loads and the corresponding slope errors in the meridional and sagittal planes were calculated. Then the angular distortions of the reflected beam in both meridional and sagittal planes were calculated analytically and also modelled by ray tracing, revealing a good agreement of the two approaches.

Studying the onset of galvanic steel corrosionusing thin films: film preparation, characterization and application to pitting.

This work reports about a novel approach for investigating surface processes during the early stages of galvanic corrosion of stainless steelby employing ultra-thin films and synchrotron x-radiation. Characterized by x-ray techniques and voltammetry, such films, sputter deposited from austenitic steel, were found representing useful replicas of the target material. Typical for stainless steel, the surface consists of a passivation layer of Fe- and Cr-oxides, a couple of nm thick, that is depleted of Ni.

ID15A at the ESRF - a beamline for high speed operando X-ray diffraction, diffraction tomography and total scattering.

ID15A is a newly refurbished beamline at the ESRF devoted to operando and time-resolved diffraction and imaging, total scattering and diffraction computed tomography. The beamline is optimized for rapid alternation between the different techniques during a single operando experiment in order to collect complementary data on working systems. The high available energy (up to 120 keV) means that even bulky and highly absorbing systems may be studied.

X-ray mirror figure correction by differential deposition and off-line metrology.

The surface figure error of a hard X-ray mirror was improved by combining differential deposition and off-line metrology tools. Thin Cr layers were deposited on flat substrates by DC magnetron sputtering. The substrates were moved in front of a beam-defining aperture.

The Nanodiffraction beamline ID01/ESRF: a microscope for imaging strain and structure.

The ID01 beamline has been built to combine Bragg diffraction with imaging techniques to produce a strain and mosaicity microscope for materials in their native or operando state. A scanning probe with nano-focused beams, objective-lens-based full-field microscopy and coherent diffraction imaging provide a suite of tools which deliver micrometre to few nanometre spatial resolution combined with 10 strain and 10 tilt sensitivity. A detailed description of the beamline from source to sample is provided and serves as a reference for the user community.

Thermal stress prediction in mirror and multilayer coatings.

Multilayer optics for X-rays typically consist of hundreds of periods of two types of alternating sub-layers which are coated on a silicon substrate. The thickness of the coating is well below 1 µm (tens or hundreds of nanometers). The high aspect ratio (∼10(7)) between the size of the optics and the thickness of the multilayer can lead to a huge number of elements (∼10(16)) for the numerical simulation (by finite-element analysis using ANSYS code).

Optimized x-ray multilayer mirrors for single nanometer focusing.

We present numerical simulations optimizing the layer shapes of curved focusing x-ray multilayer mirrors deployed at synchrotron radiation facilities using a wave-optical model. The confocal elliptical shapes of the inner layers are corrected for refraction based on the modified Bragg law. Simulated wave amplitudes are further propagated to the focal region, promising nanometer focusing.

Upgraded ESRF BM29 beamline for SAXS on macromolecules in solution.

Small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) measurements of proteins in solution are becoming increasingly popular with biochemists and structural biologists owing to the presence of dedicated high-throughput beamlines at synchrotron sources. As part of the ESRF Upgrade program a dedicated instrument for performing SAXS from biological macromolecules in solution (BioSAXS) has been installed at the renovated BM29 location. The optics hutch has been equipped with new optical components of which the two principal elements are a fixed-exit double multilayer monochromator and a 1.

Wave-optical theory of nanofocusing x-ray multilayer mirrors.

We have derived a wave-optical model of curved nanofocusing x-ray multilayer mirrors used at synchrotron radiation sources, using a Takagi-Taupin-like approach. In a first approximation, the individual layers are assumed to be confocal elliptical. This assumption leads to a convenient spatial description in elliptical coordinates.

The ID23-2 structural biology microfocus beamline at the ESRF.

The first phase of the ESRF beamline ID23 to be constructed was ID23-1, a tunable MAD-capable beamline which opened to users in early 2004. The second phase of the beamline to be constructed is ID23-2, a monochromatic microfocus beamline dedicated to macromolecular crystallography experiments. Beamline ID23-2 makes use of well characterized optical elements: a single-bounce silicon (111) monochromator and two mirrors in Kirkpatrick-Baez geometry to focus the X-ray beam.

Optical properties of boron carbide near the boron K edge evaluated by soft-x-ray reflectometry from a Ru/B(4)C multilayer.

Soft-x-ray Bragg reflection from two Ru/B(4)C multilayers with 10 and 63 periods was used for independent determination of both real and imaginary parts of the refractive index n = 1 - delta + ibeta close to the boron K edge (approximately 188 eV). Prior to soft x-ray measurements, the structural parameters of the multilayers were determined by x-ray reflectometry using hard x rays. For the 63-period sample, the optical properties based on the predictions made for elemental boron major deviations were found close to the K edge of boron for the 10-period sample explained by chemical bonding of boron to B(4)C and various boron oxides.