KB mirror project for XMaS

同步辐射(SR)源通过在磁晶格周围以高能加速电子来提供明亮的光束。由此产生的X射线在探索材料的结构、组成和激发方面提供了一个独特的强大工具。新的磁铁和真空技术意味着，存储环现在可以被设计成提供亮度(在指定带宽内每单位固体角度的单位面积的通量)和相干性大大增加的X射线束。XMAS(X射线材料科学)光束线设施嵌入在ESRF中，ESRF于2019年开始其升级方案(EBS项目)的最后阶段。新的源特性还允许使用更高的X射线能量，并扩大了目前可以解决的科学挑战。为了最大限度地提高与样品相互作用的通量，x射线束使用镜子聚焦。目前的“光斑大小”约为100x100微米，这对许多实验来说已经足够了，但对于不均匀的材料或由小区域组成的材料，大光束有效地平均覆盖了样品的许多部分，这意味着数据可能很难解释。因此，某些实验需要与材料中相应的长度尺度相称的较小的光斑尺寸，我们建议使用新的反射镜将光束重新聚焦到5x5微米或更小的光斑尺寸。虽然绝对通量较低，但小波束的大小可以改变，允许用户将波束大小与样品大小、相关样品特征匹配，最重要的是访问技术相关设备中的有源区。所有这些实验都将利用已经开发的样本环境，并允许在现场和实际操作条件下进行研究。在散射或光谱模式下使用可扫描能量(单色)的X射线允许在空间上分辨和绘制晶体和元素属性。该系统还提供了一种新的多色源，其中从3到20keV的能量同时聚焦到相同的小的、可调的微点，并允许高通量的元素映射和逐颗粒的结晶学测定。能力的提高允许在广泛的能量范围和相同的样品环境中对相同的小样品体积进行逐个现场研究，为研究与催化和绿色化学应用相关的材料开辟了新的机会。该设施将为医疗保健和量子关键行为提供新的见解，并促进对真实设备中的限制和接近的研究。更多的系统将在操作中和在技术相关的条件下进行研究。结构研究将成为空间分辨率的研究，允许研究单个区域及其在外部刺激下的时间演变。约20keV的高能将允许研究复杂样品环境中的埋藏界面，包括与电化学技术相关的固-液界面。XMaS是一种使能工具，并提供英国材料科学研究基础设施的重要组成部分，确保英国研究人员能够持续获得现在和未来最先进的仪器、专业知识和技术。通过提供基本的能力层和独特的能力，圣诞节促进了由调查员领导的研究，并使学生和早期职业研究人员的培训成为可能。与国家研究中心和国际合作伙伴的伙伴关系确保了英国材料部门未来的竞争力、弹性和创造力，该部门依赖于使用最新X射线计量技术开发、表征和开发新型功能材料。

Synchrotron radiation (SR) sources provide brilliant beams of light by accelerating electrons at high energies around a magnetic lattice. The resulting X-rays provide a uniquely powerful tool in the exploration of structure, composition and excitations in materials. New magnets and vacuum technologies mean that storage rings can now be designed to give X-ray beams with hugely increased brilliance (flux per unit area per unit solid angle in a specified bandwidth) and coherence. The XMaS (X-ray Materials Science) beamline facility is embedded in the ESRF which, in 2019, began the final phase of its upgrade programme (EBS project). The new source characteristics also allow higher X-ray energies to be used and expand the scientific challenges that can currently be addressed. To maximise the flux that interacts with the sample, the x-ray beam is focussed using a mirror. The current "spot size" is about 100x100 microns which is sufficient for many experiments, but for inhomogeneous materials or in materials which are composed of small domains the large beam effectively averages over many parts of the sample meaning the data can be difficult to interpret. A smaller spot size, commensurate with the relevant length-scales in materials is therefore needed for certain experiments and we propose to use a new mirror to re-focus the beam down to a spot size of 5x5 microns or less. Although lower in absolute flux, the size of the small beam can be changed allowing users to match the beam size to either the sample size, the relevant sample features and crucially to access the active areas in technologically relevant devices. All of these experiments will exploit the sample environments already developed and allow studies in situ and under realistic operating conditions. Using x-rays of a scannable energy (monochromatic) in either scattering or spectroscopic modes allows crystallographic and elemental properties to be spatially resolved and mapped. The system also delivers a new polychromatic source in which energies from 3 to 20 keV are simultaneously focused into the same small, tuneable micro-spot and allows high throughput elemental mapping and grain-by-grain determination of crystallography.The uplift in capability allows the study of the same small sample volume across an extensive energy range and within the same sample environment to be studied on a site-by-site basis, opening up new opportunities for studying materials relevant to catalysis and green chemistry applications. The facility will deliver new insights into healthcare and quantum critical behaviour as well as facilitating studies of confinement and proximity in real devices. More systems will be studied in-operando and under technologically relevant conditions. Structural studies will become spatially resolved allowing studies of individual domains and their temporal evolution under external stimuli. An upper energy of ~20 keV will allow studies of buried interfaces in complex sample environments including solid-liquid interfaces relevant to electrochemical technologies.XMaS is an enabling tool and provides an essential part of the UK research infrastructure for material science ensuring UK researchers have continual access to state-of-the-art instrumentation, expertise and techniques now and into the future. By providing an essential layer of capacity and unique capabilities, XMaS facilitates investigator-led research and enables the training of students and early career researchers. Partnerships with national research centres and international collaborators ensure the future competitiveness, resilience and creativity of the UK materials sector which relies on the development, characterisation and exploitation of novel functional materials using the latest x-ray metrologies.