Soft x-ray spectromicroscopy development for materials science at the Advanced Light Source

Several third generation synchrotron radiation facilities are now operational and the high brightness of these photon sources offers new opportunities for x-ray microscopy. Well developed synchrotron radiation spectroscopy techniques are being applied in new instruments capable of imaging the surface of a material with a spatial resolution smaller than one micron. There are two aspects to this. One is to further the field of surface science by exploring the effects of spatial variations across a surface on a scale not previously accessible to x-ray measurements. The other is to open up new analytical techniques in materials science using x-rays, on a spatial scale comparable to that of the processes or devices to be studied. The development of the spectromicroscopy program at the Advanced Light Source will employ a variety of instruments, some are already operational. Their development and use will be discussed, and recent results will be presented to illustrate their capabilities

Scanning transmission X-ray microscopy at a bending magnet beamline at the Advanced Light Source

During the last two decades, scanning transmission x-ray microscopy (STXM) has evolved into a powerful characterization tool. For best performance, STXM's are located at undulator sources at synchrotron facilities. The scarcity and expense of undulator sourccs and associated beamlines limits the number of availahle STXMs. We have successfully re-examined the use of bending magnets as a source for a STXM and implemented a interferorneter controlled STXM with excellent performance at the beamline 5.3.2. at the Advanced Light Source. Near the carbon K-edge, periodic features with 30 nm half-period could be resolvcd with a zonc plaie that has a 40 nrn outermost zone width with an energy resolution corresponding to 100 meV and an intensity of about 1 MHz. The design and performance of the microscope are described