microXAS - X05LA: Environmental & Materials Sciences

The microXAS beamline at the Swiss Light Source (SLS) corresponds to a versatile, in-vacuum undulator based hard x-ray microprobe facility. The beamline is covering the large spectral range from ~3keV up to ~23 keV, delivering monochromatic radiation as well as full ‘white’ light. Employing different focusing concepts, the beamline provides several types of high-brilliance focused beams, covering a large range of spatial resolutions from hundreds of micrometers down to nanometer size. The instrument is devoted to high resolution multimodal chemical imaging based on X-ray fluorescence, X-ray spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction techniques. The variety of complementary imaging modes can be employed routinely in quasi-simultaneous manner to record 2D images of several chemical properties. The progression of the imaging capabilities to full three dimensions using tomographic approaches is currently in progress.

Two additional features make the microXAS beamline a rather exceptional and exclusive X-ray microprobe facility. First, the microXAS beamline permits the investigation of radioactive materials and corresponds to the world-wide solely microprobe facility being able to analyze radioactive sample with 1µm spatial resolution. Second and definitely going beyond any existing X-ray microprobe instrumentation, the FEMTO project is an integral part of the microXAS beamline project. Ultrafast time-resolved X-ray studies with a resolution of picoseconds down to ~100 femtoseconds are ‘routinely’ carried out at the microXAS beam line.

Technical Overview

Energy range	~3 - 23 keV
Flux on sample	2 x 10¹² ph/s/400 mA
Spot size on sample±	1 x 1 µm²
Polarization	linear horizontal
Photon energy resolution	0.02%

Research Highlights

27 March 2019

Inside Batteries

Lithium ion batteries (LIB) are essential in modern everyday life, with increasing interest in enhancing their performance and lifetime. Secondary particles of Li-rich cathode material were examined with correlated ptychographic X-ray tomography and diffraction microscopy at different stages of cycling to probe the aging mechanism.

5 September 2018

Figure 1 (a) Transient relative x-ray intensity of the (1.5 0.5 0.5) superlattice reflection of Sr0.97Ca0.03TiO3 upon above bandgap excitation with 40 fs pulses Inset: STO crystal structure as seen along the c-axis. phi measures the antiferrodistortive rotation of the oxygen octahedra (exaggerated) and represents the order parameter. (b) Calculated energy change per STO cubic unit cell as a function of oxygen displacement u/u0 along the in-plane cubic crystal axes resulting from the octahedral rotation at …

Moving Atoms by Photodoping

Understanding how and how fast we can drive atoms to create a structural phase transition is of fundamental interest as it directly relates to many processes in nature. Here we show that a photoexcitation can drive a purely structural phase transition before the energy is relaxed in the material that corresponds to a “warmer” equilibrated state.

2 April 2018