The Soft X-Ray beamline is spanning the approximate energy range of 90eV to 2500eV with a resolving power of the monochromator of 10000. The AppleII elliptically polarised undulator can supply linear vertical, linear horizontal as well as left and right circular polarised light.
The soft x-ray beamline consists of two branchlines; The Imaging branchline and The Spectroscopy branchline. Since both branchlines have a common undulator and monochromator only one branch can operate at any given time. The spectroscopy branchline is set up primarily for X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy (XAS) of low atomic number elements, X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) and Angle-Resolved Photoelectron Spectroscopy (ARPES) all of which are performed under Ultra-High Vacuum (UHV) conditions. The Imaging branchline allows for Coherent Diffraction Imaging (CDI) and ptycocraphy.
The Soft X-ray beamline currently features 3 endstations; a Coherent Diffraction Imaging (CDI) endstation permanently attached to the end of the imaging branch, as well as a Prevac XAS/XPS endstation and an ARPES endstation with a toroidal geometry designed detector, which both take turns at being attached to the spectroscopy branch. The CDI endstation is owned and operated by La Trobe University, for information on this endstation and its capabilities please contact Dr Grant van Riessen (G.vanRiessen@latrobe.edu.au). An experimental chamber has been added upstream on the Imaging branch. This inline system is a high throughput Near Edge X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy (ht-NEXAFS) chamber, which allow for measurement of samples at a pressure of 10-6 mbar instead of 10-10 mbar, the UHV pressure needed to measure samples in the Prevac or Toroidal endstations.
For XAS measurements, the energy range of the beamline allow access to a significant amount of elements in the periodic table (see below) where blue indicate accessible K edges, red indicate accessible L edges and yellow indicate accessible M edges. Elements/edges not highlighted in the periodic table might still be possible to scan – please contact us for further discussions
For more information about the technical information of the Soft X-Ray beamline please see the SXR page on the Australian Synchrotron website here