Overview of the SR-FTIR endstation, including the transfer line, the spectrometer and the microscope.

The project of an infrared end-station at the ESRF, on the ID21-beamline, was initiated in December 2003. The infrared microscope operates with synchrotron radiation since April 2005.

The design and the construction of the infrared end-station is the result of the collaborative work of lots of people: both from the ESRF (J. Susini, K. Scheidt, M. Cotte, E. Gagliardini, R. Baker, S. Bohic, M. Salomé) and from SOLEIL (O. Chubar, P. Dumas, F. Polack).

This project aims at providing the X-ray microscopy community with complementary analytical tools, in particular, micro-imaging techniques with high lateral resolution, high chemical sensitivity and, low detection limit. Both IR and X-ray scanning microscopes probe different chemical scales and enable identification and location of atoms, by µ- X-ray fluorescence, atom environments (oxidation state, geometry), by µ-XANES, molecular groups and structures, by µ-FTIR.