A new bend magnet beam line for scanning transmission x-ray microscopy at the Advanced Light Source

The high brightness of the bend magnets at the Advanced Light Source has been exploited to illuminate a Scanning Transmission X-ray Microscope (STXM). This is the first diffraction-limited scanning x-ray microscope to operate with useful count rate on a synchrotron bend magnet source. A simple, dedicated beam line has been built covering the range of photon energy from 250 eV to 600 eV. Ease of use and operational availability are radically improved compared to previous installations using undulator beams. This facility provides radiation for C 1s, N 1s and O 1s near edge x-ray absorption spectro-microscopy with a spectral resolution up to about 1:5000 and with STXM count rates in excess of 1 MHz