FEMTOSPEX-Scattering

FEMTOSPEX-Scattering


Methods

Single Crystal Diffraction, Surface Diffraction, Magnetic Scattering, REXS, XMLD, NEXAFS, Time-resolved absorption, XMCD, Reflectometry

Remote access

not possible

Station data
Temperature range 6 - 400 K
Pressure range For details contact the station scientist(s).
Detector photon detection (see detection special features below)
Manipulators x/y/z; two cycle goniometer
Sample holder compatibility For details contact the station scientist(s).
Additional equipment
Probenumgebung • in-situ sample cleaving available
• sample transfer system available
• measurements at cryogenic temperatures possible
Detektion Eigenschaften • fs-laser synchronized gated detection (Avalanche Photo Diode)
• Single photon counting detection for low intensity measurements
• laser light screened detection (>1e12 attenuation)
• sample current measurement available
• data acquisition via SPEC
Diffraktometer Eigenschaften • motor controlled two-circle goniometer
• Software motion control via SPEC
• variable angular resolution
UHV < 1e-9mbar (turbo-molecular pump, ion pump, LN-cooling trap)
Sonstiges laser safety protected viewports
Applicable at beamline(s)
PM3 20 - 1900 eV
UE52_SGM 100 - 1500 eV
UE56-1_PGM 60 - 1300 eV
UE112_PGM-1 8 - 690 eV; for extreme values (<50 eV or >400 eV) contact the beamline crew

Within the last two decades resonant soft X-ray diffraction (RSXD) has emerged as a highly efficient experimental technique. It allows probing nanoscale ordering phenomena in solid state materials, like electronic order, charge or orbital order, as well as magnetic order. In particular, RSXD is one of the few methods that can probe antiferromagnetic order. For these reasons  time-resolved pump -probe RSXD is ideally suited to study the dynamics of photo-induced phase transitions in complex materials when it is combined with ultra-short photon pulses.

A special case of resonant x-ray diffraction is the spectroscopic measurement of the specular sample surface (single Bragg plane) reflection at grazing incidence angles (<12°). The advantage of x-ray reflection spectroscopy (XRS) over XAS in transmission geometry is that it lifts the strong constrain of having to use thin films of a few tens of nanometers thickness as a sample. This allows access to dynamics in crystalline bulk samples and films or nanostructures grown on thicker substrates.

Since 2008 the RXD and more recently XRS have been made available for ultrafast studies at the FemtoSpeX Slicing Facility. A dedicated two circle UHV diffractometer has been set up for diffraction (reflection) geometries within the horizontal plane. By cryogenic cooling sample temperatures down to 6K can be reached. Avalanche photodiodes (APDs) are used for gated photon pulse detection. The angular acceptance of the diffractometer is set by vertical detector entrance slits of variable size. The APDs are screened from light of the pump-laser by Al membranes (Luxel Corporation) and a light tight housing. Low noise amplification (ca. 60dB by Hamamatsu and Kuhne preamplifiers) allows besides analog pulse detection for time-correlated single-photon pulse counting. Generally signals as low as ~5 photons/sec from the sample can be detected. This corresponds to a diffraction (reflection) efficiency of >5e-5.