A high quality multilayer x-ray monochromator for third generation synchrotron sources

The ability to provide high spectral resolution with high dynamic photon flux is a hallmark of third generation synchrotron sources. However, under most circumstances, only two modes of operation are currently available for user studies, monochromatic and polychromatic modes. In polychromatic operation, the spectral bandwidth can exceed 1keV, which is often too large for accurate structural reconstruction in solid-state systems. In contrast, monochromatic operation comes at significant cost to photon flux, making the study of transient structural changes difficult to measure.

In this work we descibe the design and performance of a new multilayer monochromator for use at hard x-ray synchrotrons. This monochromator can provide users with both a tuneable bandwidth and increased photon flux sufficient for rapid structural determination. Our results demonstrate that this multilayer monochromator can provide widely tunable hard x-ray, possessing energy bandwidth of 20-100eV, and photon fluxes that significantly exceed standard double crystal monochromators. This capability not only has implications for time-domain materials research, but could be utilized on a variety of x-ray scattering/spectroscopic techniques.