First results of the soft X-ray microfocus beamline U41-PGM

We present the first experimental data obtained from the new microfocus beamline U41-PGM recently put into operation. The optical layout of the beamline has been designed to conserve the high spectral brillance of the undulator source. The beamline consists of a collimated plane grating monochromator (PGM) and a subsequent refocusing stage. A toroidal mirror is used for refocusing onto the sample surface. With the 600 l/mm. grating an absolute photon flux between 10(12) and 10(13) photons per second has been recorded over the whole energy range. Although the monochromator is not designed to deliver highest energy resolution, a resolving power of up to 6000 at the nitrogen K-edge has been obtained recently. The fixfocus. constant c(ff) is variable in a wide range. According to the experimental requirements it can be set to select either high photon flux or energy resolution. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.