Thermal limit to the intrinsic emittance from metal photocathodes

Measurements of the intrinsic emittance and transverse momentum distributions obtained from a metal (antimony thin film) photocathode near and below the photoemission threshold are presented. Measurements show that the intrinsic emittance is limited by the lattice temperature of the cathode as the incident photon energy approaches the photoemission threshold. A theoretical model to calculate the transverse momentum distributions near this photoemission threshold is presented. An excellent match between the experimental measurements and the theoretical calculations is demonstrated. These measurements are relevant to low emittance electron sources for Free Electron Lasers and Ultrafast Electron Diffraction experiments

Fabrication and characterization of ultra-high resolution multilayer-coated blazed gratings

Multilayer coated blazed gratings with high groove density are the most promising candidate for ultra-high resolution soft x-ray spectroscopy. They combine the ability of blazed gratings to concentrate almost all diffraction energy in a desired high diffraction order with high reflectance soft x-ray multilayers. However in order to realize this potential, the grating fabrication process should provide a near perfect groove profile with an extremely smooth surface of the blazed facets. Here we report on successful fabrication and testing of ultra-dense saw-tooth substrates with 5,000 and 10,000 lines/mm

Three-dimensional localization of nanoscale battery reactions using soft X-ray tomography.

Battery function is determined by the efficiency and reversibility of the electrochemical phase transformations at solid electrodes. The microscopic tools available to study the chemical states of matter with the required spatial resolution and chemical specificity are intrinsically limited when studying complex architectures by their reliance on two-dimensional projections of thick material. Here, we report the development of soft X-ray ptychographic tomography, which resolves chemical states in three dimensions at 11 nm spatial resolution. We study an ensemble of nano-plates of lithium iron phosphate extracted from a battery electrode at 50% state of charge. Using a set of nanoscale tomograms, we quantify the electrochemical state and resolve phase boundaries throughout the volume of individual nanoparticles. These observations reveal multiple reaction points, intra-particle heterogeneity, and size effects that highlight the importance of multi-dimensional analytical tools in providing novel insight to the design of the next generation of high-performance devices

Ultra-high Resolution Optics for EUV and Soft X-ray Inelastic Scattering

Abstract. We describe a revolutionary new approach to high spectral resolution soft x-ray optics. Conventionally in the soft x-ray energy range, high spectral resolution is obtained by use of a relatively low line density grating operated in 1 st order with small slits. This severely limits throughput. This limitation can be removed by use of a grating either in very high order, or with very high line density, if one can maintain high diffraction efficiency. We have developed a new technology for achieving both of these goals which should allow high throughput spectroscopy, at resolving powers of up to 10 6 at 1 keV. Such optics should provide a revolutionary advance for high resolution lifetime free spectroscopy, such as RIXS, and for pulse compression of chirped beams. We report recent developmental fabrication and characterization of a prototype grating optimized for 14.2 nm EUV light. The prototype grating with a 200 nm period of the blazed grating substrate coated with 20 Mo/Si bilayers with a period of 7.1 nm demonstrates good dispersion in the third order (effective groove density of 15,000 lines per mm) with a diffraction efficiency of more than 33%

Recent Major Improvements to the ALS Sector 5 MacromolecularCrystallography Beamlines

Although the Advanced Light Source (ALS) was initially conceived primarily as a low energy (1.9GeV) 3rd generation source of VUV and soft x-ray radiation it was realized very early in the development of the facility that a multipole wiggler source coupled with high quality, (brightness preserving), optics would result in a beamline whose performance across the optimal energy range (5-15keV) for macromolecular crystallography (MX) would be comparable to, or even exceed, that of many existing crystallography beamlines at higher energy facilities. Hence, starting in 1996, a suite of three beamlines, branching off a single wiggler source, was constructed, which together formed the ALS Macromolecular Crystallography Facility. From the outset this facility was designed to cater equally to the needs of both academic and industrial users with a heavy emphasis placed on the development and introduction of high throughput crystallographic tools, techniques, and facilities--such as large area CCD detectors, robotic sample handling and automounting facilities, a service crystallography program, and a tightly integrated, centralized, and highly automated beamline control environment for users. This facility was immediately successful, with the primary Multiwavelength Anomalous Diffraction beamline (5.0.2) in particular rapidly becoming one of the foremost crystallographic facilities in the US--responsible for structures such as the 70S ribosome. This success in-turn triggered enormous growth of the ALS macromolecular crystallography community and spurred the development of five additional ALS MX beamlines all utilizing the newly developed superconducting bending magnets ('superbends') as sources. However in the years since the original Sector 5.0 beamlines were built the performance demands of macromolecular crystallography users have become ever more exacting; with growing emphasis placed on studying larger complexes, more difficult structures, weakly diffracting or smaller crystals, and on more rapidly screening larger numbers of candidate crystals; all of these requirements translate directly into a pressing need for increased flux, a tighter beam focus and faster detectors. With these growing demands in mind a major program of beamline and detector upgrades was initiated in 2004 with the goal of dramatically enhancing all aspects of beamline performance. Approximately $3 million in funding from diverse sources including NIH, LBL, the ALS, and the industrial and academic members of the beamline Participating Research Team (PRT), has been employed to develop and install new high performance beamline optics and to purchase the latest generation of CCD detectors. This project, which reached fruition in early 2007, has now fulfilled all of its original goals--boosting the flux on all three beamlines by up to 20-fold--with a commensurate reduction in exposure and data acquisition times for users. The performance of the Sector 5.0 beamlines is now comparable to that of the latest generation ALS superbend beamlines and, in the case of beamline 5.0.2, even surpasses it by a considerable margin. Indeed, the present performance of this beamline is now, once again, comparable to that envisioned for many MX beamlines planned or under construction on newer or higher energy machines

Near-edge X-ray Refraction Fine Structure Microscopy

We demonstrate a method for obtaining increased spatial resolution and specificity in nanoscale chemical composition maps through the use of full refractive reference spectra in soft x-ray spectro-microscopy. Using soft x-rayptychography, we measure both the absorption and refraction of x-rays through pristine reference materials as a function of photon energy and use these reference spectra as the basis for decomposing spatially resolved spectra from a heterogeneous sample, thereby quantifying the composition at high resolution. While conventional instruments are limited to absorption contrast, our novel refraction based method takes advantage of the strongly energy dependent scattering cross-section and can see nearly five-fold improved spatial resolutionon resonance

Picosecond time resolved microscopy on magnetic structure using X-PEEM

Understanding magnetization dynamics on a small spatial and a fast temporal scales is of both fundamental and technological interest, as future magneto-electronic devices are getting smaller and faster down to a few tens of nanometer and a few hundreds of picosecond. On ps time scale the magnetization dynamics is determined by the fundamental spin processes of precession and damping whose microscopic origins are not well understood yet. For a time and spatially resolved microscopy technique, we have utilized the high spatial resolution Photoemission Electron Microscope PEEM-2 at the ALS and the intrinsic time resolution given by the ALS pulse width. The first observation results of x-ray magnetic microscopy on the 100 ps time scale and 100 nm length scale will be reported here. The ps time resolution was achieved by utilizing a pump-probe technique via synchronization between femtosecond laser pump for short magnetic pulse generation and ALS synchrotron x-ray probe for x-ray microscopy observation. Magnetic field pulse was created by current pulse, launched from a photoconductive switch through a lithographically produced waveguide structure. The switch was triggered by a fs laser, synchronized to the pulse train of the ALS, operated in two bunch mode. The fast evolution of magnetic domains was monitored as a function of the delay between the magnetic field pulse (pump) and the x-ray pulse (probe) using a stroboscopic pump-probe setup. The time resolved magnetization evolution images were analyzed within the context of micromagnetic consideration using the magnetic pulse profile, which was determined independently by utilizing the deflection of images due to the time dependent electric potential while current pulse flows through the waveguide