Overview

The Spherical Grating Monochromator (SGM) beamline operates in the soft X-ray energy range (250-2000 eV), and is equipped with two endstations, one dedicated to X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) and the other to X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS).   The XPS endstation, maintained at ultra-high vacuum (< 5 x 10^-9 Torr), is used for material characterization, particularly differentiating between surface and bulk phases, and determining certain electronic properties (binding energies, work function, etc.). The XAS endstation, maintained at ~10^-6 Torr, is well suited to study "dirty" materials, such as environmental and soil samples, electrocatalysts, batteries, and biological samples.

The CLS facility also includes supporting infrastructure such as sample preparation laboratories (including micro- and cryotomes), battery cyclers and potentiostats (available for use during beamtime), a Laue X-ray diffractometer, and an environmental scanning electron microscope.

We are located on the inspiring University of Saskatchewan campus in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

Beamline Specification and Performance

• Incident Photon Energy Range: 250 to 2000 eV
• Energy Resolution: > 5000 below 1500 eV
• Photon Flux: 4 x 10¹² photons/s at 250 eV, >10¹¹ photons/s at 1900 eV
• Polarization: linear horizontal, linear vertical, circular left and right.

Source

• Elliptically polarizing undulator (APPLE-II with a 54 mm period)

Primary Optics

• M₁ Planar deflecting mirror, Si and C stripes
• M₂ Planar deflecting mirror, Si and C stripes
• M₃ Vertical focusing mirror, Rh and Si Stripes

Monochromator

• McPherson spherical grating
• Three gratings: low energy grating (LEG), 600 lines/mm, Ni coated; medium energy grating (MEG), 1100 lines/mm, Au coated; high energy grating (HEG), 1000 lines/mm, Au coated
• Movable exit slit: 700 mm range

Refocusing Optics

• M₄ Toroidal mirror, Au coated
• Kirkpatrick-Baez (KB) Mirror pairs, Au coated (XAS)
  • Beam Size on the Sample:
  • 1000 µm ⨉ 100 µm, 10 µm ⨉ 10 µm (focused)

Endstations

• The ambient pressure X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) endstation is primarily used for micro-focused X-ray absorption and fluorescence mapping experiments under either ambient pressure or high-vacuum conditions. For additional details see: XAS Endstation
• The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) endstation is built for performing bulk X-ray absorption and X-ray photoemission studies under UHV conditions. For additional details see: XPS Endstation