Laboratory vacuum spectrometer for the soft x‐ray region

A laboratory surface x‐ray absorption near edge structure ((S)XANES) spectrometer used for measurements in the soft x‐ray region is described. The x‐ray beam path of the spectrometer is enclosed in a vacuum chamber directly connected to the x‐ray generator output port. With this setup, the absorption of the x‐rays in the air is avoided. The developed spectrometer uses a monochromator equipped with cylindrically bent PET(002), KAP(001), and Ge(111) crystals of different Rowland radii working in the Johann focusing geometry. Nine stepping motors are used to control the positions of the monochromator, receiving slit, sample, and detectors. An x‐ray photon energy available in experiment ranges from about 1 keV to 5 keV. A registration of the photoelectrons emitted from the sample with the channeltron is used to carry out surface‐sensitive measurements. The performance of the developed spectrometer is illustrated by spectra measured at the absorption K‐edges of several elements from the Na‐Ti set. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.