About the SST-1 RSoXS station

The Resonant Soft X-ray Scattering (RSoXS) station is the furthest upstream measurement station on the soft branch of the SST-1, SST-2 beamline suite. Initially funded by an award from the NIST Innovations in Measurement Science (IMS) competition in 2018, and operational since 2019, the SST-1 RSoXS station is the newest world-leading facility for RSoXS. The RSoXS station is generally used to measure soft materials and specializes in measurements at the Carbon K X-ray absorption edge, where recent advances have lead to a nearly flat spectrum of X-rays. To learn more about RSoXS and NIST’s RSoXS endstation in particular, please explore this wiki, and email the beamline scientist if you have any questions.

Technical Specifications

For more details, see the beamline instrument publication and endstation webpage.

  • Beamsize: 250 µm (vertical FWHM) by 350 µm (horizontal FWHM)
  • Detector: 4k x 4k Greateyes flange mounted CCD cooled to -80 ºC. Click here for more details.
  • Sample Detector Distance: centered at 20 mm - 50 mm (WAXS) and ~500 mm (SAXS - currently out of commission) (use scattering standards to find the precise distance)
  • Sample Manipulators: 4 axis (x,y,z, rotation) solid sample holder (1x8 inches) from above, TEM (transmission electron microscopy) holder port compatible with FEI style holders (heating, fluids)
  • X-ray Energy range: 70 eV - 2200 eV
  • X-ray polarization: linear (0-180 degrees linear), circular (clockwise and counterclockwise)
  • sample transmission measurement via beamstop diodes
  • drain current from sample stage

Current Scientific Capabilities

RSoXS

  • Scattering angles from 2 - 70 degrees with the WAXS camera - carbon edge size scales from ~5 nm - 80 nm
  • (Scattering angles from 0.05 to 4 degrees with the SAXS camera - carbon edge size scales from 40 nm - 3 µm) - currently not available
  • A number of standardized scans of common edges available, including the carbon edge at various resolutions (~10 minutes - 0.1 eV, ~5 minutes, 0.2 eV) see the Scans page for details
  • Exposure Times as low as 0.002 seconds
  • Planned features: Grazing incidence geometry with a new retractable grazing incidence beamstop
  • Interactive planning tool: RSoXS Scattering Calculator for quick q-range and distance checks

NEXAFS

  • Multiple Measurement Modes:

    1. Transmission mode using beamstop diodes
    2. Total electron yield (TEY) mode via drain current measurements from the sample holder (for non-insulating samples)
    3. Florescence using wide angle CCD

  • Fly scanning enables fast scanning (~1/min per edge) and cyclic NEXAFS measurements (scanning upwards and downwards repeatedly in energy)

  • Polarization Specifications:

    1. fixed sample, rotating polarization mode maintains the same beam footprint on the sample, and rotates the beam polarization angle to collect a tilt-angle series
    2. fixed polarization, rotating sample to do a classic tilt angle scan
    3. normal incidence, rotating linear polarization to determine in-plane orientation

  • Planned features: Partial Electron Yield (PEY) mode measurements