cSAXS is a beamline dedicated to small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) and coherent diffractive imaging, particularly ptychography. It is located at the Swiss Synchrotron Light Source SLS at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI in Villigen, Switzerland.
The beamline is currently undergoing a major upgrade as part of the SLS-2.0 project. The upgrade activities have focused on the beamline optics and are described by Roesner at al. (2024). Sample environments, including the ptychography endstations, and measurement geometries have largely remained unchanged.
At present, mirror installation has had to be postponed, and beamline commissioning is still ongoing. As a consequence, optical properties and overall beamline performance could not yet be established. Nevertheless, interested users are encouraged to discuss experimental ideas with the beamline staff (cSAXS@psi.ch) and to consider submitting a proposal in the current SLS call for proposals. Beamtime allocation follows the recommendation of the proposal review committee and depends on the feasibility of establishing the required experimental capabilities.
Experiment types
Experiments performed at cSAXS include,
- Ptychographic nanotomography, see for example Dierolf et al., Nature 467, 436 (2010) or Holler et al., Nature Electronics 2, 464 (2019). Dedicated instrumentation, available to users, is described in Holler et al., Sci. Rep. 4, 3857 (2014), Holler et al., Rev. Sci. Instrum. 88, 113701 (2017), Holler et al., Rev. Sci. Instrum. 89, 043706 (2018), and Holler et al., J. Synchrotron Rad. 27, 730 (2020).
- Optics characterization, see for example: Vila-Comamala et al. Opt Express 19, 21333 (2011)
- Small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), e.g., Smeulders et al., Nature 478, 412 (2011), can be performed with spatial resolution as microscopy technique in 2D (Bunk et al. New J. Phys. 11, 123016 (2009)) and 3D (Liebi et al. Nature 527, 349 (2015)). SAXS is also available with time resolution in the millisecond range (Westenhoff et al., Nature Methods 7, 775 (2010)).
Analysis
Access to PSI data analysis center is described in Photon Science Data Analysis.
Setup Images
Images of some typical setups can be found under Endstations.
Technical Data
We will update this information as soon as we can.
| Energy range | 6 – 25 keV |
|---|---|
| Energy resolution, ΔE/E | < 0.02% |
| Spot size on sample (horizontal × vertical) | variable from 1.5 × 0.8 mm2 to ~3 × 2 µm2. |
| total flux (at sample position)* | t.b.d. |
| Coherent flux** | t.b.d. |
| q-range (@11.2 keV)† | SAXS detector at 7.2 m, q = [0.0012, 0.1]Å-1, d-spacing = [524, 6.28] nm. SAXS detector at 2.1 m, q = [0.004, 0.34]Å-1, d-spacing = [157, 1.85] nm. |
User Contact Points at PSI