High resolution in the soft x-ray range from a toroidal grating monochromator

Abstract

A resolving power, E/ΔE, of ≥13 000 has been achieved with the modified 6 m/160° toroidal grating monochromator (TGM) installed on Beam Line 8-1 at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory. The resolving power of the TGM was increased by replacing the entrance and exit slits with high-precision slits, masking the horizontal part (short radius) of the grating, and improving the TGM scanning mechanisms. To determine the performance of the monochromator, we measured the dependences of resolution and photon flux on the entrance- and exit-slit widths, the exit-slit position, and the masking of the grating. The monochromator resolution in the energy range of 25–65 eV was derived from photoionization measurements of extremely narrow core-excitation resonances in He and Ne. With 10-μm vertical entrance- and exit-slit widths and 32% mask opening of the grating, the monochromator has a resolution (full-width at half maximum) of 5.0±0.7 meV at a photon energy of 64.5 eV and a flux of 2×107 photons/s/100 mA. The results suggest a simple procedure for converting a TGM with moderate resolution into a high-resolution monochromator with a moderate reduction in photon flux due to masking the grating, beyond the reduction attributable to the slit widths.