The Scanning X-ray microscope can be operated in an energy range from 2-10.5 keV, thus giving access to the K-edges of Phosphorus to Zinc, and to the L- and M-edges of some heavier elements for micro-fluorescence and micro-XANES measurements. Please consult the following periodic table for further details. The wide spectral operating range of the microscope is attractive for spectro-microscopy. Whilst in its simplest form the microscope allows taking multiple images of a single sample region at different incident energies, it also offers the possibility to perform highly spatially resolved XANES scans on small regions of the sample.

A fixed exit double crystal monochromator equipped with Si<111>, Si<311> crystals is used to select and/or scan the energy of the x-ray beam.

The monochromatic beam is then focused to 0.35 x 0.7 µm2 using a Kirkpatrick-Baez mirrors. The beam flux of the order of 1010- 1011 photons/s/Si<111> bandwidth.

The sample is aligned in the focal plane of the KB mirrors and raster scanned in the micro-beam to collect 2D images. Silicon photodiodes are used for transmission measurements. The SXM is also equipped with several energy dispersive detectors. Transmission signal as well as a full fluorescence spectrum can be recorded for each pixel of the map.

 

For further technical details, please consult the page dedicated to the SXM II end-station.