NSLS-II Seminar

A hard x-ray micro-nanoprobe [1] has been constructed at the Australian Synchrotron to provide versatile X-ray fluorescence microscopy across an incident energy range from 4 to25 keV. Two X-ray probes are used to collect µ-XRF and µ-XANES for elemental and chemical microanalysis: a Kirkpatrick-Baez mirror microprobe for micron resolution studies; and a Fresnel zone plate nanoprobe with laser interferometer encoding of sample position and capable of 60 nm resolution. Some unique aspects of the XFM beamline design, including a horizontal bounce DCM, and some lessons learned will be discussed.

The beamline is commissioning an advanced energy dispersive x-ray fluorescence detection scheme named Maia developed by BNL [2] and CSIRO Australia [3]. The Maia detector employs an annular geometry of 384-element planar silicon array to create a large acceptance solid-angle and handle count rates greater than 107/s. On-the-fly scanning combined with event mode data acquisition enables sub-ms per virtual pixel dwell with real-time elemental deconvolution and image projection. A 96-element Maia prototype used on the KB mirror microprobe has created high definition elemental maps with over 100 megapixels on a range of geological, materials and biological samples in practical time frames. Ultrafast X-ray fluorescence acquisition realises high definition elemental mapping, and creates the opportunity for fluorescence tomography and XANES imaging within practical time frames.