• Fuchs, O. ; Weinhardt, L. ; Blum, M. ; Weigand, M. ; Umbach, E. ; Bär, M. ; Heske, C. ; Denlinger, J. ; Chuang, Y.-D. ; McKinney, W. ; Hussain, Z. ; Gullikson, E. ; Jones, M. ; Batson, P. ; Nelles, B. ; Follath, R.: High-resolution, high-transmission soft x-ray spectrometer for the study of biological samples. Review of Scientific Instruments 80 (2009), p. 063103/1-7


Abstract:
We present a variable line-space grating spectrometer for soft x-rays that covers the photon energy range between 130 and 650 eV. The optical design is based on the Hettrick–Underwood principle and tailored to synchrotron-based studies of radiation-sensitive biological samples. The spectrometer is able to record the entire spectral range in one shot, i.e., without any mechanical motion, at a resolving power of 1200 or better. Despite its slitless design, such a resolving power can be achieved for a source spot as large as (30x3000) um2, which is important for keeping beam damage effects in radiation-sensitive samples low. The high spectrometer efficiency allows recording of comprehensive two-dimensional resonant inelastic soft x-ray scattering (RIXS) maps with good statistics within several minutes. This is exemplarily demonstrated for a RIXS map of highly oriented pyrolytic graphite, which was taken within 10 min.