VARIABLE GROOVE SPACED GRATING MONOCHROMATORS FOR SYNCHROTRON LIGHT-SOURCES

Several generic spectrometer types have been developed for research using VUV light at synchrotron radiation sources. They all have used gratings with a constant groove spacing and they all have tried to incorporate high resolution, high throughput, rejection of second and higher order radiation, and design simplicity in their construction. The use of gratings ruled with variable spaced grooves to reduce defocus, coma, and spherical aberration was suggested almost twenty years ago. An instrument using this grating concept was built five years ago for conventional sources. The first monochromator using a variable line spaced grating was installed at the National Synchrotron Light Source almost two years ago, and a high resolution version of such an instrument has been built at the Synchrotron Radiation Center operated by the University of Wisconsin. In this presentation we review the development of monochromators using variable line space gratings and the possible applications of this type of instrumentation.