A soft X-ray beamline for surface chemistry at the Photon Factory

A new soft X-ray (50-1500 eV) beamline has been constructed at a bending magnet station at the Photon Factory in order to perform photoemission spectroscopy (PES), X-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS), photoelectron diffraction (PED) and X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) experiments in surface chemistry. Approximately 10(11) photons/s can be obtained with a medium resolution (E/DeltaEsimilar to1000), while E/DeltaEsimilar to8000 can be attained at the N K edge with a photon flux of similar to10(9) photons/s. In addition to conventional XAFS, a novel technique 'energy dispersive NEXAFS (near-edge X-ray absorption fine structure)' has been successfully developed. The performance of the new beamline is reported and typical examples of its application to surface chemistry are demonstrated. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.