Soft X-ray beamline specialized for actinides and radioactive materials equipped with a variably polarizing undulator.

This report presents the design of an undulator beamline at SPring-8 to be used for soft X-ray spectroscopy focused on radioactive materials. Photoemission spectroscopy experiments are carried out in a radioisotope (RI)-controlled area where actinide compounds as well as unsealed radioactive materials are usable. Intrusion of the radioactive materials into the electron storage ring or to the outside of the evacuated beamline components can be avoided by a specially devised RI protection/inspection mechanism.

Two-photon correlations in X-rays from a synchrotron radiation source.

The intensity correlation experiment using visible light performed by Hanbury Brown & Twiss [Nature (London) (1956), 177, 27-29] is extended to X-ray wavelengths. Correlations of 14.4 keV X-ray photons from a synchrotron radiation source are observed by the coincidence counting technique.