A dedicated superbend x-ray microdiffraction beamline for materials, geo-, and environmental sciences at the advanced light source

A new facility for microdiffraction strain measurements and microfluorescence mapping has been built on beamline 12.3.2 at the advanced light source of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. This beamline benefits from the hard x-radiation generated by a 6 T superconducting bending magnet (superbend). This provides a hard x-ray spectrum from 5 to 22 keV and a flux within a 1 mu m spot of similar to 5x10(9) photons/s (0.1% bandwidth at 8 keV). The radiation is relayed from the superbend source to a focus in the experimental hutch by a toroidal mirror. The focus spot is tailored by two pairs of adjustable slits, which serve as secondary source point. Inside the lead hutch, a pair of Kirkpatrick-Baez (KB) mirrors placed in a vacuum tank refocuses the secondary slit source onto the sample position. A new KB-bending mechanism with active temperature stabilization allows for more reproducible and stable mirror bending and thus mirror focusing. Focus spots around 1 mu m are routinely achieved and allow a variety of experiments, which have in common the need of spatial resolution. The effective spatial resolution (similar to 0.2 mu m) is limited by a convolution of beam size, scan-stage resolution, and stage stability. A four-bounce monochromator consisting of two channel-cut Si(111) crystals placed between the secondary source and KB-mirrors allows for easy changes between white-beam and monochromatic experiments while maintaining a fixed beam position. High resolution stage scans are performed while recording a fluorescence emission signal or an x-ray diffraction signal coming from either a monochromatic or a white focused beam. The former allows for elemental mapping, whereas the latter is used to produce two-dimensional maps of crystal-phases, -orientation, -texture, and -strain/stress. Typically achieved strain resolution is in the order of 5x10(-5) strain units. Accurate sample positioning in the x-ray focus spot is achieved with a commercial laser-triangulation unit. A Si-drift detector serves as a high-energy-resolution (similar to 150 eV full width at half maximum) fluorescence detector. Fluorescence scans can be collected in continuous scan mode with up to 300 pixels/s scan speed. A charge coupled device area detector is utilized as diffraction detector. Diffraction can be performed in reflecting or transmitting geometry. Diffraction data are processed using XMAS, an in-house written software package for Laue and monochromatic microdiffraction analysis.