High resolution soft x-ray bending magnet beamline 9.3.2 with circularly polarized radiation capability at the advanced light source

Bending magnet beamline 9.3.2 at the Advanced Light Source (ALS) was designed for high resolution spectroscopy in the soft x-ray energy region, covering a range from 30 eV to 1500 eV with three gratings. The monochromator itself is a standard fixed included angle 55 m spherical grating monochromator and was originally used at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (SSRL) as a prototype for later insertion device based monochromators for the ALS. For operations at the ALS, the toroidal pre-mirror used at SSRL to vertically focus onto the entrance slit and horizontally focus onto the exit slit was replaced by two separate crossed mirrors (Kirkpatrick-Baez configuration). Circularly polarized radiation is obtained by inserting a water-cooled movable aperture in front of the vertically focusing mirror to allow selecting the beam either above or below the horizontal plane. To maintain a stable beam intensity through the entrance slit, the photocurrent signals from the upper and lower jaws of the entrance slit are utilized to set a feedback loop with the vertically deflecting mirror Piezoelectric drive. The beamline end station has a rotatable platform (through 60 degrees) that accommodates two experimental chambers, enabling the synchrotron radiation to be directed to either one without breaking vacuum.