FORTE – a multipurpose high-vacuum diffractometer

for tender X-ray diffraction and spectroscopy at the

SIRIUS beamline of Synchrotron SOLEIL
G. Ciatto, N. Aubert, M. Lecroard, C. Engblom, P. Fontaine, M. Dubuisson,
M. Abiven, P.-E. Janolin, M. Kiat, Y. Dumont, et al.

To cite this version:

G. Ciatto, N. Aubert, M. Lecroard, C. Engblom, P. Fontaine, et al.. FORTE – a multipur-
pose high-vacuum diffractometer for tender X-ray diffraction and spectroscopy at the SIRIUS
beamline of Synchrotron SOLEIL. Journal of Synchrotron Radiation, 2019, 26 (4), pp.1374-1387.
�10.1107/S1600577519003722�. �hal-02264671�

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 1

FORTE - A multipurpose high vacuum diffractometer for

tender x-ray diffraction and spectroscopy at the SIRIUS
beamline of Synchrotron SOLEIL

G. Ciatto,a * N. Aubert,a M. Lecroard,a C. Engblom,a P. Fontaine,a

J.-M Dubuisson,a Y.-M. Abiven,a P.-E. Janolin,b J.-M. Kiat,b1

Y. Dumont,c B. Berini,c A. Fouchetc2 and N. Kellerc

a Synchrotron SOLEIL, L’Orme des Merisiers, Saint-Aubin, BP 48 F-91192 Gif sur

Yvette CEDEX France, b Laboratoire SPMS, UMR CNRS-CentraleSupélec, Bâtiment

Gustave Eiffel - MB.105, 8-10 rue Joliot-Curie, 91190 Gif-Sur-Yvette CEDEX

France, and c Groupe d’Etudes de la Matière Condensée (GEMaC), Université

Versailles Saint-Quentin en Yvelines - CNRS, Université Paris-Saclay, Versailles

France. E-mail: gianluca.ciatto@synchrotron-soleil.fr

Abstract

A new high vacuum multipurpose diffractometer (called FORTE from the French

acronyms of the project) has been recently installed at the tender/hard x-ray SIR-

IUS beamline of Synchrotron SOLEIL, France. The geometry chosen allows one to

work either in the classical Eulerian four-circle geometry for bulk x-ray diffraction

(XRD) or in the z-axis geometry for surface XRD. The diffractometer nicely fits the

characteristics of the SIRIUS beamline, optimized to work in the 1.1 - 4.5 keV range,
1
Deceased
2
Present address: Laboratoire de Cristallographie et Sciences des Matériaux (CRISMAT), Université
de Caen Normandie CNRS-ENSICAEN, Caen, France

PREPRINT: Journal of Synchrotron Radiation A Journal of the International Union of Crystallography

 2

and allows us to perform unprecedented diffraction anomalous fine structure (DAFS)

experiments in the tender x-ray, also around non-specular reflections, covering large

reciprocal space volume. Installation of a x-ray fluorescence detector on a dedicated

flange allows simultaneous DAFS and x-ray absorption (XAS) measurements. The

access to the tender x-ray opens the way to resonant investigations around the L-edges

of second transition raw elements which are constituents of functional oxide materials.

It also enables access to several edges of interest for semiconductors. Finally, the con-

trol architecture based on synchronized Delta-Tau units opens up exciting perspectives

for improvement of the mechanical sphere of confusion.

1. Introduction

X-ray Diffraction (XRD) is still one of the most employed structural characteriza-

tion techniques in synchrotron radiation facilities worldwide and free electron lasers;

it applies to a variety of scientific area spanning from fundamental physics (McBride

et al., 2018) to biology (Nemoz et al., 2018), from material science (Huang et al., 2015)

to cultural heritage (Bao et al., 2018). On the one hand, the diversity in users’

demand drove to the development of the most suitable instrumentation for specific

applications, e.g. diffractometers with robotic sample changer systems and fast align-

ment tools for macromolecular crystallography beamlines (Fuchs et al., 2014), many-

circle diffractometers for precise alignment of crystals in materials science (Seeck

et al., 2012; Nowak et al., 2006), ultra-high vacuum (UHV) instruments for reactive

surface studies (Nicklin et al., 2016; Fuoss & Robinson, 1984) and specific set-ups for

liquids (Smilgies et al., 2005; Murphy et al., 2014; Fontaine et al., 2014). Recently, the

upgrade program that several synchrotrons have planned for lowering the emittance

via the use of multi-bend achromat (MBA) storage rings (Einfeld, 2014) is boosting

the design of diffractometers with sub-micron positional stability and reproducibil-

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ity in order to benefit from the enhanced coherence of the future x-ray beams (Ju

et al., 2017). On the other hand, synchrotron beamlines often welcome different kind

of experiments and sample environments, thus the versatility of the set up is also

a very important criterion to be taken into account when building a diffractometer

(Dyadkin et al., 2016).

When working in the hard x-ray, absorption by air and windows is usually not a big

issue in diffractometer design: the detector can be mounted out of the sample chamber

(if any chamber exists), most of the positioning motors work in air reducing the risk of

overheating and sample pollution, and space constraints are often less severe. Several

geometries, using as many circles as necessary for the experimental applications, have

been devised in order to cover the available reciprocal space (Bunk & Nielsen, 2004;

Vlieg, 1998; Lohmeier & Vlieg, 1993; Thorkildsen et al., 1999). Diffractometers hosting

stations for in situ sample growth and characterization exploit the high brilliance and

time structure of modern synchrotron radiation facilities (Lee et al., 2016; Boichot

et al., 2016). However, in hard x-ray beamlines, due to the presence of beryllium

(or other) windows and the use of double crystal monochromators equipped with Si

crystals, the possibility to perform resonant scattering and diffraction below 3 keV is

rare (Strempfer et al., 2013).

In the soft x-ray, instead, absorption by the air is dramatic and the detector (with

ultra-thin windows or windowless) has to inserted into the vacuum chamber. When the

sample needs to be measured at low temperature, contamination is an issue because

the sample can act as a cold finger in case of scarce vacuum level and contamination

layers deposited on the sample surface can absorb an important fraction of the soft

x-ray. This is the reason why several soft x-ray diffractometers/reflectometers were

build by minimizing the number of in vacuum motors in order to reach UHV level.

UHV is also necessary when the surface is sensitive and can react with residual water

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vapors in the chamber; this is the case, for example, of ferroelectric oxides, where

the dissociative adsorption of water can play as an extrinsic mechanism for screening

the surface polarization charge. A typical strategy frequently exploited in soft x-ray

beamlines was to choose an horizontal scattering geometry with sample actuation

and detector rotation kept outside of the vacuum chamber, with the motion being

transmitted through bellows and differential-pumped rotary seal (Jaouen et al., 2004;

Grabis et al., 2003; Brück et al., 2008; Staub et al., 2008; Takeuchi et al., 2009). These

soft x-ray diffractometers/reflectometers are normally provided with an azimuthal

angle (φ) covering a large range, either manual or motorized, and very limited (a few

degrees) tilt angle (χ). Polarization is switched using the undulator source and without

moving the sample. The degrees of freedom provided by this modified reflectometer

geometry, considering also the strong contraction of reciprocal space in the soft x-

ray, were sufficient to address the study of charge, magnetic and orbit ordering in

several scientific cases, especially probing the magnetically active 3d electron band

of first raw transation metals. In other soft x-rays reflectometers/diffractometers, a

vertical scattering configuration was chosen to benefit from the low divergence of

the beam (Beale et al., 2010); in fewer examples the geometry featured in-vacuum

motors (Hawthorn et al., 2011; Beutier et al., 2007) or aimed at integrating several

experimental methods within the same sample environment (Abrudan et al., 2015),

sometimes compromising with the UHV vacuum level.

In the tender x-ray (arguably, the 1 - 5 keV range), the requirements of the hard x-

ray and the issues intrinsic to the soft x-ray overlap: on the one hand the use of windows

and (even) short sections in air is inconvenient due to the rather strong absorption;

on the other hand several crystal plane reflections become available, depending on the

material under study, and this calls for a larger covering of reciprocal space (i.e. a more

extended range for the diffractometer circles) and better angular resolution to measure

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the XRD peaks. Due to these difficulties, the tender x-ray energy range has been his-

torically less exploited by XRD synchrotron beamlines worldwide, even for resonant

studies. In addition, spectroscopy beamlines have often difficulties to cover the tender

x-ray energy range too, being it located just between the two working ranges of appli-

cation of classical grating and double crystal monochromators. Nevertheless, there is

a tremendous interest in performing both resonant scattering/diffraction investiga-

tions and spectroscopy in the tender x-ray. In fact this energy range encompasses the

L-edges of second transition raw elements (Sr, Y, Zr, Nb, Ru, Mo, etc.), which are

constituents of functional oxide materials and also hosts several edges of interest for

semiconductors (Al, Si, P, In, Sb, etc.).

In this paper we present a new multipurpose high vacuum (HV) diffractometer opti-

mized to perform both XRD and spectroscopy in the tender x-ray. The HV diffrac-

tometer has been recently installed at the SIRIUS beamline of Synchrotron SOLEIL

and showcases its innovative multilayer grating-based optics and undulator source. The

design and geometry has been devised as a compromise among technical and users’

requirements, versatility and vacuum level. This new end-station allows us to perform

high quality diffraction anomalous fine structure (DAFS) experiments in the tender

x-ray, also around non-specular reflections, covering large reciprocal space volume.

It enables simultaneous DAFS and x-ray absorption (XAS) measurements in addi-

tion to resonant x-ray reflectivity (XRR) and tender x-ray grazing incidence small

angle scattering (GISAXS). Moreover, the instrument will benefit from the character-

istics of the upgraded SOLEIL ring for coherent diffraction imaging (CDI). The HV

diffractometer was manufactured and assembled by the Symétrie company (Nı̂mes,

France) and founded by two parallel projects: a joint agreement with the Swedish

MAX IV Synchrotron (a twin prototype is under installation at the FemtoMAX beam-

line (Enquist et al., 2018)) and a regional project, the Île-de-France DIM OXYMORE

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project ”FORTE” (from the French acronym), which also gave the name to the end

station. In the next section we will give a brief recall of the main characteristics of

the SIRIUS beamline; in Section 3 we will present the geometry, mechanics and per-

formance of the diffractometer including available detectors, sample environment and

control system; in Section 4 we will present selected results of the first commissioning

and collaborative experiments performed with the end station; finally, in Section 5 we

will draw a possible upgrade path for the next future before concluding.

2. The SIRIUS beamline

The SIRIUS beamline has been already described in two recent papers (Ciatto et al.,

2016; Fontaine et al., 2014) and we remind to those references for a detailed presen-

tation. Here, we limit to summarize the most important features that are key for the

use of the FORTE diffractometer, which constitutes one of SIRIUS end-stations.

SIRIUS is mounted on an helicoidal Apple-II undulator x-ray source with 36mm

magnetic period (HU36) (Kitegi et al., 2010) which provides variable polarization

(linear vertical, linear horizontal and circular) and it is equipped with two monochro-

mators mounted in series and used alternately. The first is a double crystal monochro-

mator (DCM) at a distance of 18.5 m from the source using a pair of liquid nitrogen-

cooled Si [111] crystals; the second is a multilayer-grating monochromator (MGM)

consisting of a variable line spaced holographic diffraction grating with line density =

2400 lines/mm over which a multilayer with 35 periods of Cr (2.5 nm)/B4 C (4.1 nm)

has been deposited, and two matched multilayer mirrors as second optical element.

The two monochromators are followed by a set of four mirrors which provide high

harmonics rejection, focusing of the beam in the vertical and horizontal plane, and

optional beam deflection. The smallest beam spot on the sample at the end-stations

in focused mode (without flux reduction) is about 0.1 x 0.05 mm2 (V x H) and four
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positions of the beam at the end station level are possible according to whether the

mirrors are used or not and to the specific mirror combination used.

13
2 10
Harmonic 1
Harmonic 3
X-ray flux (photons/s)
13
1,5 10 Harmonic 5

13
1 10

12
5 10

0
1 1,5 2 2,5 3 3,5 4 4,5
Energy (keV)

Fig. 1. X-ray flux impinging on the sample as a function of the energy in a typical
configuration of the SIRIUS beamline using the MGM monochromator and the first
three harmonics of the HU36 undulator.

Although the beamline provides photons in a continuous energy range 1.1 - 13 keV

using either one or the other monochromator and it is routinely exploited also for

hard x-ray studies, its range of excellence is the tender x-ray, where the MGM is

used. This range matches the highest performance region of the SOLEIL ring. The

MGM, which works in combination with an elliptic mirror focusing on a energy-

selecting slit (ESS), provides high flux and good energy resolution in the 1.1 - 4.5 keV

energy range. Moreover, it preserves circular polarization in this range, which would

not be possible with the DCM being the Brewster angle for Si [111] located around

2.8 keV. As a consequence, the MGM can be also used for X-ray Magnetic Circular

Dichroism (XMCD) and X-ray Resonant Magnetic Scattering (XRMS) experiments

in the tender x-ray. The performances of the MGM are shown in Fig. 1 where the

x-ray flux at the end station level is plotted as a function of energy for a typical high-

energy-resolution configuration used for spectroscopy at grazing incidence. Here the

beam is focused only vertically and the ESS is rather closed (5 µm); the x-ray flux
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has been measured by using a ultra-thin optical grade diamond membrane specifically

designed for monitoring the beam intensity/position and for normalizing spectra at

the SIRIUS beamline (Desjardins et al., 2014). Fig. 1 shows that, switching between

the harmonics 1, 3 and 5 of the HU36 undulator, the x-ray flux can be maintained

always above 4x1012 photons/s in the 1.1 - 4.5 keV energy range and it reaches almost

the level of 2x1013 photons/s in the 2.5 - 3 keV range. Energy resolution (∆E/E) is

between 1.5x10−4 and 2x10−4 in the MGM energy range for the ESS opening chosen

in Fig. 1, therefore close to the resolution offered by a Si[111] DCM and more than

sufficient for application in XAS and DAFS spectroscopies. Flux can be raised above

3x1013 opening the ESS and accepting a lower energy resolution; such x-ray fluxes in

the tender x-ray are rather impressive for a grating-based technology. More technical

details about the MGM will be published in a dedicated paper currently in preparation.

The HV diffractometer that will be described in the following sections is one of

the two end-stations available at the SIRIUS beamline; the other end-station is a

large 7-circle diffractometer which can be used either with a ”kappa head” goniometer

(Thorkildsen et al., 1999), on which a baby chamber can be mounted, or with a six-

axis tower for heavy and cumbersome sample environments. Although there is no

restriction in using the FORTE diffractometer also in the hard x-ray energy range up

to 13 keV, the use of the other end-station is more convenient in that range. In fact,

when the use of Be windows to separate vacuum and air sections does not represent a

limit, the 7-circle diffractometer allows one to mount larger sample environments and

detectors, to select longer sample-detector distances when necessary and to switch the

samples faster.

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3. The High Vacuum Diffractometer

3.1. Geometry

A conceptual sketch of the FORTE diffractometer geometry is shown in Fig. 2.

The instrument consists of a four-circle Eulerian diffractometer with full range θ, δ, φ

circles and a rather extended χ (more than 100 ◦ ) incorporated in a vacuum chamber,

plus an additional vertical axis rotation (α) of the whole vessel (± 10 ◦ ). The latter

rotation is external to the vacuum vessel, and the connection of the vessel to the

beamline requires the use of a bellow which can withstand movements about the α

arc. This choice allows one to work either in a classical four-circle geometry (Busing

& Levy, 1967) for bulk XRD (Fig. 2a) or in a configuration similar to the z-axis

geometry (Mati Bloch, 1985; Feidenhans’l, 1989) for surface XRD, with the second

detector circle replaced by a position sensitive detector (PSD) mounted on the δ arm.

In the latter configuration (Fig. 2b), the sample surface is vertical (χ = 90 ◦ ), α is

used to set (or scan) the incidence angle and a precise alignment of the sample surface

normal with the φ rotation axis is possible by using an in vacuum hexapod mounted

on the φ circle.

Fig. 2. Sketch of the HV diffractometer geometry. (a) four-circle configuration for bulk
XRD; (b) configuration for surface XRD.

This geometry choice offers the following advantages:

• The absence of Be windows allows direct connection to the storage ring vacuum,

enabling experiments down to energy as low as 1.1 keV.

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• The use of a very open χ circle, analogously to a kappa geometry, leaves enough

space on the side opposite to the mechanics for the installation of ancillary

instrumentation (e. g., fluorescence x-ray detectors).

• The χ range is sufficiently wide to allow access to non-specular reflections which

would not be accessible in a reflectometer geometry. To give an idea of the

reciprocal space volume covered, in table 1 we show the list of the crystal

place reflections reachable in resonant conditions for two case studies: a strained

In0.38 Ga0.62 As semiconductor pseudomorphic on GaAs substrate (tetragonal dis-

tortion of a zinc blende cell) analyzed at the In L3-edge, and a PbSc0.5 Nb0.5 O3

relaxor oxide (trigonal, but approximable as a cubic perovskite) studied at the

Nb L3-edge. The two edges are located in the tender x-ray, at 3.730 keV and

2.371 keV, respectively.

• The possibility to work either in vertical or horizontal scattering geometry pro-

vides high versatility in addressing the different users’ demands. In particular,

FORTE allows the use of grazing incidence x-ray diffraction, which has been

demonstrated to be an unique tool in the study of thin films and nanostructures

(Pietsch et al., 2004), where it is important to reduce the background coming

from the substrate scattering.

Moreover, the choice complied with space and weight constraints related with the

installation in a rather narrow experimental hutch along with easy transport and

maintenance.

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Table 1. List of the crystal plane reflections available in resonant conditions on two case
studies (strained In0.38 Ga0.62 As at the In L3-edge and PbSc0.5 Nb0.5 O3 at the Nb L3-edge)
given the diffractometer geometry shown in the sketch of Fig. 2. For each reflection,
identified by the HKL Miller indexes, we include the corresponding δ and χ angles, the
inter-plane spacing (d) and the momentum transfer (Q = 2π/d).

In0.38 Ga0.62 As, In L3-edge (3.730 keV)

−1
H K L δ (degrees) χ (degrees) d (Å) Q (Å )
1 0 1 47.83 46.49 4.10 1.53
1 1 0 49.13 90.00 4.00 1.57
0 0 2 67.86 0.00 2.98 2.11
2 0 0 72.03 90.00 2.83 2.22
1 1 2 88.22 36.68 2.39 2.62
2 1 1 91.15 66.99 2.33 2.70
2 0 2 108.34 46.49 2.05 3.07
2 2 0 112.51 90.00 2.00 3.14
1 0 3 125.10 19.35 1.87 3.36
3 0 1 135.36 72.44 1.80 3.49
3 1 0 136.77 90.00 1.79 3.51

PbSc0.5 Nb0.5 O3 , Nb L3-edge (2.371 keV)

−1
H K L δ (degrees) χ (degrees) d (Å) Q (Å )
1 0 0 37.38 90.00 8.16 0.77
0 0 1 37.38 0.00 8.16 0.77
1 1 0 53.89 90.00 5.77 1.09
0 1 1 53.89 45.00 5.77 1.09
1 1 1 67.42 54.74 4.71 1.33
2 0 0 79.71 90.00 4.08 1.54
0 0 2 79.71 0.00 4.08 1.54
2 1 0 91.53 90.00 3.65 1.72
2 1 1 103.42 65.91 3.33 1.89
2 2 0 129.99 90.00 2.89 2.17
3 0 0 148.00 90.00 2.72 2.31
2 2 1 148.00 70.53 2.72 2.31

3.2. Mechanics and Performance

The conceptual sketch of Fig. 2 was materialized as shown in Fig. 3a: the FORTE

diffractometer consists of a four-circle HV assembly and of two hexapods. The first

(large) hexapod works in air, holding the entire vacuum vessel. Its vertical axis rotation

(Rz) provides the α arc of the sketch (± 10 deg), while the other five degrees of freedom

are used to align the diffractometer and center it on the different possible positions of

the incident beam, depending on the mirror configuration chosen. The second (small)
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hexapod works under vacuum, mounted on the φ circle of the goniometer and bears

the sample environments allowing at the same time a fine alignment of the sample

surface, independent of the goniometer circles. The volume occupied by the end-station

once the vacuum vessel is mounted, as shown in Fig. 3b, is 1499 x 1261 x 2176 mm3

(LxWxH): the geometry chosen allowed us to limit the base projection, which was

an issue for installation in a already existing experimental hutch. Total weight of the

end-station is about 2050 Kg. When the end-station is used for grazing incidence

x-ray diffraction, the entry flange is connected to the beamline by means of a large

custom race track bellow with (internal) section = 372 x 70 mm2 and length around

700 mm. The race track bellow, provided by Mewasa (Wangs, Switzerland), allows

rotation of the whole diffractometer about the α vertical rotation axis along with

wide translations in the three directions.

Fig. 3. (a) Illustration of the FORTE diffractometer showing its three main compo-
nents: the four-circle HV assembly, the large air hexapod alignment base (JORAN)
and the HV hexapod sample holder (BORA). (b) Illustration of the diffractome-
ter including a sketch of the vacuum vessel showing the volume occupied by the
end-station.

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Fig. 4. The four-circle assembly based on Huber HV circles with the BORA hexapod
mounted on the φ circle.

The four-circle diffractometer consists of HV compatible Huber (Rimsting, Ger-

many) circles (Ref. 440.HV for θ; Ref. 411-X2W2.HV for δ, 5202.80.HV for χ and

410-X2W1.HV for φ). The circles are actuated by Phytron (Gröbenzell, Germany)

HV compatible stepper motors equipped with Renishaw (Kingswood, UK) absolute

encoders. Fig. 4 shows a photograph of the four-circle assembly; the mass of the assem-

bly is 321 Kg, and the δ arm is optimized for a maximum payload of 12 Kg. The large

base hexapod is a customized version of the JORAN hexapod manufactured by the

Symétrie company (Nı̂mes, France); it uses stepper motors and absolute encoders for

precision positioning. The possibility of aligning the diffractometer on the different

possible beam positions (Ciatto et al., 2016), which are rather distant both along the

vertical axis (z) and along the axis transverse to the beam (x) when focusing mirrors

are used, relies on the wide translation range allowed by JORAN (70 mm in z and

200 mm in x). The mass of JORAN is 335 Kg and its maximum payload permits

to support diffractometer, vessel and ancillary instrumentation. The small vacuum

hexapod is a standard HV compatible model (BORA) fabricated by the Symétrie

company, featuring direct current (DC) motors and incremental encoders. Despite its

small dimension (base diameter = 210 mm, height 141 mm) and mass (4.3 Kg), BORA

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can withstand a maximum payload of 3.5 Kg in any direction; this feature, in addition

with the location of the center of rotation of the two hexapod tilts 40 mm above the

upper plate, allows the installation of different sample environments.

In order to manage the cables when the HV hexapod moves on the rotatory φ plate,

a slip ring was installed along the φ axis of the goniometer taking advantage of the

open base of BORA. The slip ring was manufactured by the RUAG company (Berne,

Suisse). In addition to the hexapod actuator and encoder cables, the slip ring has

eight free tracks that can be used for managing sample environment cables, including

cables for sample heating, temperature and current measurements, electric field and

polarization. Sample environment tracks are centralized into two D-Sub9 connectors

fixed on the base of the BORA hexapod. A cable managing tool consisting in a stainless

steel blade guided by an Al housing allows the φ + BORA subset to move along the

100 ◦ of the χ circle segment; the housing maintains the blade when rotating θ. Outside

the vacuum vessel, the cables coming from the vessel feedthroughs, along with the air

JORAN cables, are guided via drag chains to a centralized patch panel installed on

the JORAN base. Thanks to lifting eyes installed on the base and upper part of the

vacuum vessel and to the customized JORAN base interface, the diffractometer can

be easily removed from SIRIUS experimental hutch as an ensemble and stocked in a

workshop or laboratory for maintenance and test; reproducibility of the montage is

guaranteed by several alignment tools.

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Table 2. Measured parameters of the FORTE diffractometer.

Axis Range Repeatability Resolution Precision Speed

Huber four-circle
θ ± 180 ◦ 0.0006 ◦ 0.0002 ◦
0.0006 ◦
1 ◦ /s
δ -10 ÷ +180 ◦ 0.0010 ◦ 0.0002 ◦
0.0010 ◦
2 ◦ /s
χ -3 ÷ +100 ◦ 0.0007 ◦ 0.0002 ◦
0.0009 ◦
0.5 ◦ /s
φ ± 180 ◦ 0.0016 ◦ 0.0002 ◦
0.0021 ◦
0.37 ◦ /s
JORAN hexapod
α (Rz) ± 10 ◦ 0.0003 ◦ 0.0002 ◦ 0.0006 ◦ 0.17 ◦ /s
Tz -40 ÷ +30 mm 0.001 mm 0.001 mm 0.006 mm 0.93 mm/s
Tx -95 ÷ +105 mm 0.001 mm 0.001 mm 0.016 mm 2.43 mm/s
Rx ±2◦ 0.0002 ◦ 0.0002 ◦ 0.0018 ◦ 0.09 ◦ /s
Ry ±2◦ 0.0002 ◦ 0.0002 ◦ 0.009 ◦ 0.09 ◦ /s
BORA hexapod
Tz ± 10 mm 0.0001 mm 0.0001 mm 0.0037 mm 1.1 mm/s
Tx ± 20 mm 0.0008 mm 0.0001 mm 0.013 mm 2.0 mm/s
Ty ± 20 mm 0.0007 mm 0.0001 mm 0.0107 mm 2.0 mm/s
Rx ± 10 ◦ 0.0002 ◦ 0.0001 ◦ 0.0079 ◦ 1.63 ◦ /s
Ry ± 10 ◦ 0.0001 ◦ 0.0001 ◦ 0.0059 ◦ 1.88 ◦ /s

The main performance parameters for all diffractometer axes are shown in table

2. In the table, as also shown in Fig. 3b, ”z” represents the vertical direction; ”y”

the direction along the x-ray beam and ”x” the direction in the horizontal plane

perpendicular to y. ”Tz” indicates a translation along the z axis and ”Rz” a rotation

about the z axis, the same meaning when switching z with x or y. It is worth remarking

the wide angular range of the four-circle axes and of JORAN Tx and Tz, the very good

repeatability of all axes on the full range of the movements (about 0.001 ◦ or better for

angles and 1 µm or better for translations), and the excellent resolutions. As concerns

the movement speed, this is relatively high for the θ, δ and BORA axes, and lower

for the χ and φ axes due to space/mechanical constraints which drove the choice of

the motors. JORAN Rx and Ry have also low speed: since these rotations are usually

operated during the alignment phase and not frequently, we chose to favor repeatability

versus speed. Even if no data acquisition is normally performed in our experiments

during the hexapod movements, nevertheless care was taken in minimizing the cross

coupling while an hexapod axis is operated. The sphere of confusion (SOC) of the

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diffractometer was measured by using a metrology sphere of mass 3.5 Kg mounted on

the BORA hexapod (the mass corresponds to BORA maximum load) and an Orbit

digital lever probe by Solartron (Leicester, UK) fixed on the δ arm. The δ arm was

also charged up to its maximum payload (12 Kg) for the measurement. SOC of the

diffractometer (including the α arc) was found to be ≤ 100 µm at full charge and over

the full extension of the diffractometer circles. This SOC value was found to be more

than sufficient for all the experiments run until now and it is reasonable considering

the present minimum beam size available at SIRIUS. In order to perform experiments

with a smaller beam in the future (a few micron size) the SOC could be reduced

considering that it mainly comes from systematic errors due to the χ circle guiding

and flexion, and exploiting the electronics architecture described below in section 3.5.

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3.3. Vacuum vessel and pumping system

Fig. 5. Illustration of the FORTE vacuum vessel including list of the 27 frontal and
top flanges. Other 19 flanges (not included in the list) are located in the rear and
bottom sides of the vessel and are dedicated to the electrical feedthroughs of the
vacuum motor/encoder cables and of the sample environment/detector electronics,
to the turbo pump port, vacuum gauges, and pressure safety valve.

The vacuum vessel was provided by the SDMS company (Saint-Romans, France)

following a SOLEIL design. It consists of a rectangular base of mass = 700 Kg and

of a half cylinder-shaped cloche of mass = 635 Kg, both fabricated in stainless steel

following certificated procedure for HV compatibility. The airtightness of all welding

was certified as better than 10−8 mbar.l/s and verified via He leak tests. Fig. 5 shows

illustrations of the vessel mounted on the JORAN diffractometer where all the 27

ConFlat (CF) flanges installed on the top/lateral and frontal sides of the vessel are

shown; most flanges point to the diffractometer center i.e. to the sample position.

Some of these flanges have been already used during the first experiments at SIRIUS,

for example the custom flange 19 which allows insertion of a four-element silicon drift
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detector (SDD) setting the nose at proximity of the sample. Flange 16 (interchangeable

with 17) can be used to set a second SDD farer from the sample. Flange 12 is used

to mount a viewport equipped with fast opening for manual access to the sample

stage, while the in vacuum sample transfer line can be mounted on flange 14; these

two flanges are interchangeable. Flanges 18 and 20, one of which is used to mount a

viewport employed to visualize the sample during transfer, are interchangeable too.

Flange 2 hosts an optical camera which also assists during sample change, the custom

rectangular flange 1 is used for connection to the beamline vacuum trough the race

track bellow described in section 3.2, and flange 27 for the electrical feedthrough for the

heater described below in section 7. Other flanges are dedicated to the installation of

new instrumentation in the short and middle term such as electrical feedthroughs and

cooling lines for other sample environments (flanges 22-26), a gridded ion source (flange

7) with its neutralizer (flange 5) and a high-resolution vertical x-ray spectrometer

(flange 6). Moreover, the diffractometer has been conceived as a versatile expandable

platform and several other spare flanges have been added in order to meet new users’

needs, equipments and ideas.

All the flanges used for the electrical feedthroughs of the vacuum motor/encoder

cables and of the detector electronics, for the vacuum gauges, and pressure safety

valves have been mounted either at the bottom of the chamber base or at the rear

of the vacuum vessel. In fact, these 19 additional flanges do not need to be oriented

towards the sample; moreover locating flanges out of the vessel cloche, when possible,

make the opening of the vessel easier for maintenance and/or sample environment

and detector change purposes. The flange (CF 200) for connecting a turbo-molecular

pump is located at the bottom of the vessel base and allows installation of the pump

between the legs of the JORAN hexapod without possibility of collision. We chose

a ATH1603 M 200 turbo pump by Pfeiffer (Asslar, Germany) backed by a XDS35i

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primary pump by Edwards (Burgess Hill, UK), the latter installed on a damper and

far from the diffractometer to attenuate vibrations. This pumping system is sufficient

to reach HV level: the diffractometer can pass from atmospheric pressure to the 10−7

mbar range in a few hours and to the 10−8 mbar range in a couple of weeks (if the

chamber is not re-open) without the need of a bake out. This vacuum performance,

obtained with the standard sample environment and detector inserted in the vessel

(see section 3.4), is rather good considering the number of motors installed inside the

vacuum vessel. The reachable vacuum level, sufficient for all the experiments carried

out until now, could also be improved adding a second turbo pump on one of the

flanges of the upper part of the vessel and/or performing a bake out of the chamber

(the last procedure requiring the removal of sensitive instruments such as the four-

element SDD). No issue related to vacuum motor overheating has been experienced

until now, nevertheless the vessel base has been equipped with a flange reserved for

a motor water cooling line in case of future need, and maximum temperature watch

dogs have been set up.

Fig. 6. Photograph of the FORTE diffractometer installed in the SIRIUS beamline

experimental hutch.

Fig. 6 shows a photograph of the FORTE diffractometer installed in the SIRIUS

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beamline experimental hutch with the turbo pump and fluorescence detector installed

on the dedicated flanges. One can also remark, on the right side of the figure, the

transfer line which allows sample change without breaking the vacuum. The in vacuum

transfer line is based on a all metal sealed linear-rotary feedthrough equipped with

rare earth magnets on the air- and vacuum side to provide the force to ensure a

rigid coupling from the handle to the inner shaft. The sample transporter ends with

a grabber tool suitable to manipulate flag style sample plates. The grabber has a

matching slit to slide over the sample plate’s handle, by twisting the grabber by

90◦ either way the sample plate can be either held by the grabber or released on a

suitable receiver element. All the transfer line instrumentation is ultra-HV compatible

and was provided by the Ferrovac company (Zürich, Switzerland). The transfer line is

also equipped with a cross-shaped pre-chamber featuring a stage of four drawers for

flag style sample plates; this allows one to transfer and measure four samples in a raw

without opening the pre-chamber. Since the pre-chamber is separated from the main

vessel and connected to an additional pump with suitable valves, opening of the main

vessel is never needed except for sample environment and detector change.

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3.4. Sample environment and Detectors

Fig. 7. Left: picture of the Boralectric heating stage mounted on the HV hexapod
installed on the goniometer. Right: Pilatus3 100K-M detector mounted on the δ
arm of the FORTE diffractometer.

The BORA hexapod can host a heating stage assembly provided by Tectra (Frank-

furt, Germany), shown in Fig. 7 (left panel). The heating stage consists of a Boralectric

heater (model HTR1001) equipped with twofold Nb foils for heat shielding and a type

K thermocouple mounted inside the heater. It also includes a baseplate and threaded

rods with hight adjustment, the latter used to position the sample surface at 40 mm

from the BORA plate (i.e. the center of rotation of BORA Rx and Rz when the

hexapod is on its reference position). A receiver for flag style sample plates by Fer-

rovac, fabricated in Mo for better performance at high temperature, is mounted on the

Boralectric plate. The φ circle of the diffractometer and the BORA fine adjustments

allow us to easily set the receiver in face of the the sample transporter mounted on its

dedicated flange (see Fig. 6). All material and vacuum cabling comply with the HV

standard. The heating stage, piloted by a PID-controller with autotuning, has been

tested with positive results up to 700◦ during the diffractometer commissioning. No

overheating of the BORA plate and other mechanics nor of the flanges where sensitive

elements are located has been sensed. Exploiting the relatively large maximum payload
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of the BORA hexapod (3.5 Kg), we plan to mount several other sample environments

in the next future including a sample holder with electrical contacts for measurements

under electric field and more precise temperature/current monitoring at the sample

level, a cryostat, and a light variable magnetic field environment based on permanent

magnets (Nolle et al., 2012). This new instrumentation is presently under design.

The δ arm of the diffractometer allows the installation of several detectors with mass

between 0 and 12 Kg, using a series of 12 counterweights of 1 Kg each for maintaining

equilibrium. The detector that we use more frequently is a PILATUS3 100K-M two

dimensional (2D) detector (Fig. 7, right panel) provided by Dectris (Baden, Switzer-

land). The detector has 172 x 172 µm2 pixel size, a total detection area of 83.8 x

33.5 mm2 , and a 20 bits dynamic range; it can be positioned within a 160 - 517

mm distance range from the sample according to the experimental needs, thanks to

a sliding support. PILATUS3 100K-M is designed with an HV compatible detector

head which is inserted in the vessel, and a separated read-out electronics unit which

is located outside (on one of the bottom flanges), the two elements being connected

by a cable whose distance has to be kept smaller than 220 cm (including the electrical

feedthrough). Nevertheless, this length allows complete covering of the δ circle angu-

lar range without any collision of the cables with the mechanics during movements.

Water cooling of the detector head is assured by 250 cm long flexible hoses coupled

with suitable cooling feedthroughs. We chose a detector with the ultra low energy

calibration option, where the energy threshold can be adjusted between 1.6 and 18

keV; since the energy resolution of the threshold is 500 eV, the recommended working

energy range starts around 2.0 - 2.1 keV and goes until (and beyond) the maximum

energy available at SIRIUS. The use a robust, sensitive, and fast 2D detector is invalu-

able when performing grazing incidence XRD or tender x-ray small angle scattering

(SAXS), however the PILATUS3 100K-M does not allow us to work down to 1.1 keV.

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For energy < 2 keV, we presently use a point detector preceded by vacuum slits:

the detector is a in-vacuum Peltier-cooled windowless Hamamatsu S2592-04 diode

(Hamamatsu City, Japan) with high shunt resistance. The diode electronics consists

of a FEMTO DDPCA-300 current amplifier coupled with analogical to digital con-

verter (ADC) Adlink 2005 (500 kHz) with a 16 bit dynamics over 0-10 V. In parallel

with the vacuum detectors for XRD, a Bruker XFlash QUAD 5040 four-element SDD

fluorescence detector (Billerica, USA) is mounted on flange 19 (see Fig. 5 and 6) for

XAS measurements; the detector is equipped with an 8 µm-thick Be vacuum window

and it is coupled to a four-channel xMAP DXP electronics provided by XIA (Hayward,

USA). Finally, the large PILATUS3 1M (Broennimann et al., 2006) detector available

at SIRIUS could also be connected to exit flange 11 (Fig. 5) for tender x-ray GISAXS

experience in He environment.

3.5. Electronics, Software, and Control

The diffractometer subsystems (the JORAN and BORA hexapods, and the Huber

four-circle assembly) utilize sixteen encoded motors to achieve six degrees-of-freedom

(DOF) on diffractometer alignment, six DOF on sample alignment, and a total of

five DOF on sample and detector rotations. Performing the necessary movements

and/or alignments with low SOC values not only puts high constraints on the mechan-

ical construction, but also on control system requirements. As such, the control sys-

tem has been implemented using a pre-defined architecture from the REVOLUTION

Project (Zhang et al., 2015), here based on the high-performing Delta Tau Power-

brick controller which has been recently integrated as a SOLEIL standard. This con-

troller offers, amongst many features, powerful processing capacity, multi-axis syn-

chronization, encoder processing, virtual/operational space control through kinematic

equations, and non-linear trajectories (Abiven et al., 2017). In addition, TANGO

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(http://www.tango-controls.org/) interfacing has been made possible using embedded

software libraries written in-house at SOLEIL (Abiven et al., 2017). FORTE control

architecture has been developed thanks to a collaboration between SOLEIL, which

has provided the high-level TANGO interface, and the Symétrie company, which has

provided integrated kinematic routines and system configurations for the hexapods

and four-circle subsystems (Abiven et al., 2017) (see Fig. 8).

Fig. 8. Controller embedded software. In the SOLEIL-SYMETRIE collaboration,

SOLEIL has provided TANGO interfacing libraries (marked green), while SYME-
TRIE has provided kinematic routines and system configurations (marked yellow).

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Fig. 9. Low-Level system control architecture.

The implemented architecture uses three Delta Tau Powerbrick LV IMS controllers

each interfacing its own subsystem. The temperatures of the in-vacuum motors are

also monitored by an external PLC which interlocks the motion controllers in case

of overheating. Dedicated motor drivers (Phytron) are used for the Huber four-circle

system. Figure 9 shows a more detailed overview of the low-level control architecture.

Here, control is classified into two separate schemes:

A Powerbrick N 1 (BORA Control System, Multi-axial Cascaded control): All six

motors are separately driven and controlled with motor phase currents at 16 kHz

and motor positional servo control at 4 kHz; all of which move in synchronized

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trajectories using model-based kinematics. TANGO control is exerted via the

shared memory using dedicated libraries.

B Powerbrick N 3+2 (JORAN+Huber Control System, Multi-axial Cascaded control

over 2 controllers): Synchronized control of the JORAN and Huber four-circle

systems is achieved via the MACRO bus (an open protocol developed by Delta

Tau that is used for real-time motion (Abiven et al., 2017)) between two Power-

brick controllers. This allows the master controller (No. 3) to perform the closed-

loop servo (at 4 kHz) and synchronized multi-axial trajectory calculations (with

kinematics at 1 kHz) for the JORAN and Huber systems. TANGO control is

exerted via the master controller. Synchronized motion of the Huber assembly

and JORAN allows for two major advantages:

1. The JORAN platform can also be used for sample and detector movements,

thus adding a 5th rotational DOF to the Huber four-circle system (the α

angle defined in section 3.1).

2. Repeatable motion errors of the Huber four-circle assembly can be corrected

for with the JORAN platform using compensation tables (in a feedfor-

ward manner), and thus reducing the SOC of detector and sample circular

motions.

The second control scheme (B) works well when using six DOF hexapods for motion

error compensation. This scheme can be further scaled up to synchronize all Power-

bricks (No 1+2+3) using the MACRO Bus; this will allow the use of BORA hexapod

(instead of JORAN) to improve the diffractometer SOC via compensation tables.

The use of BORA for this purpose is more convenient since its movements are faster

and they do not induce a displacement of the diffractometer center with respect to the

incident beam position. These synchronization possibilities and the SOC improvement

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will be key for future experiments with smaller x-ray beams (see section 5).

The TANGO control software can be further employed using a high-level envi-

ronment developed at SOLEIL (called SPYC) that provides a friendly and versatile

interface to the users. The SPYC platform is written in the Python programming lan-

guage and allows one to use commands to move and scan several motors at the same

time (undulator gap, monochromator and diffractometer axes), and to write scripts

and macros for automatic acquisition.

4. Experimental applications

In this section we show selected examples of the results of the first commissioning and

collaborative experiments very recently performed using the FORTE diffractometer,

which was commissioned at the SIRIUS beamline in the first semester 2018 and it is

nowadays open to the public user program. We present here data relative to tender

x-ray DAFS experiments, tender x-ray grazing incidence XAS and XRD reciprocal

space mapping. The use of the end-station for other experiments, such as tender x-ray

SAXS/GISAXS and resonant XRR, is also possible and some of them are foreseen for

the next future. It is worth remarking that this section exclusively aims at presenting

the potential of the new HV diffractometer for experiments, while quantitative analysis

of the results presented (which is presently in progress) is out of the scope of this

manuscript.

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4.1. Tender x-ray DAFS

Energy = 2.3 keV

x1

X-ray intensity (arb. units)

x300 x30
x10
DAFS (arb. units)

3 [111]
x10 [110]
[002]

Nb L1
x1 Nb L3 Nb L2
[002]
Pb M5 [111]
Pb M4 [110]

2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 24 28 32 36 40

(a) Energy (keV) q(deg) (b)

Fig. 10. (a) DAFS spectra taken on a PbSc0.5 Nb0.5 O3 sample using three different
reflections ([002], [110], [111]), spanning the energy range of the Nb L-edges and
the Pb M-edges. The three DAFS spectra are multiplied by a factor (given in the
left part of the figure) in order to be plotted on the same scale. (b) XRD θ-2θ scans
performed around the three crystal plane reflections at energy = 2.3 keV.

PbSc0.5 Nb0.5 O3 (PSN) is a perovskite oxide (ABO3 ) whose proprieties switch from

ferroelectric (FE) to relaxor or anti-ferroelectric according to the degree of ordering

of Sc and Nb atoms on the B-site (FE when partially ordered, anti-FE when perfectly

ordered and relaxor when disordered) (Malibert et al., 1997). Correlated anti-parallel

displacements of the Pb cations as well as oxygen octahedra rotations can influence

the proprieties of the material, which is interesting for technological applications in

filters, sensors/actuators, and antennas. Coexistence between ordered and disordered

regions within the same sample is also possible. When these crystals are studied with

x-ray diffraction, different reflections are visible: some of them are pure structural

reflections (as the [002] one), others are superstructure reflections arising from the

ordered alternation of Sc and Nb planes (as the [110] one), others again are thought to
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reflect chemical order (Sc, Nb) along a crystallographic direction plus the anti-parallel

cationic displacements along the same direction (as the [111] one). Fig. 10a shows

three DAFS spectra taken using the [002], [110], and [111] reflections in an energy

interval spanning the L-absorption edges of Nb and the M-edges of Pb; Fig. 10b shows

XRD θ-2θ scans performed around the three crystal plane reflections at energy = 2.3

keV where the Bragg peaks are visible. Quantitative analysis of the DAFS spectra

taken at the different structure and super-structure reflections will allow us to shade

some light about the relative fraction and nature of the chemically ordered regions.

In particular, DAFS is suitable to understand how the single elements participate to

a specific super-structural order and if the local structure of the atoms involved in

that super-structural order is different from the average one. Together with XAS data

obtained at the Nb L-edges and Sc k-edge on the same samples (not shown), these

experimental results will be very useful to clarify the correlation between short range

order, local density of states and relaxor properties in PSN. We note here that the use

of the Nb L3-edge makes our probe sensitive to orbitals with d-symmetry, which is

particular important since Nb has 4d-electrons in the valence band and these electrons

are involved in bonding with O 2p-electrons. Eventually, it is also worth remarking

that the use of a four-circle diffractometer with large angular range (including for χ)

is here mandatory to explore the different reflections used in the DAFS study (see

table 1, bottom part).

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X-ray scattering intensity (arb. units)

10
DAFS on
SrTiO
SrVO 10
7 3
3 [001] SrVO
3
10
6 [001]
5
10

DAFS (arb. units)

4
10

1000

100
102 104 106 108
d (deg)

Sr L3 Sr L2

1.9 1.92 1.94 1.96 1.98 2 2.02

Energy (keV)

Fig. 11. Sr L3-edge DAFS spectrum of a 35 nm SrVO3 layer sandwiched in a

LaAlO3 /SrVO3 /SrTiO3 structure; inset: XRD θ-2θ scan around the SrTiO3 [001]
substrate peak showing the SrVO3 [001] shoulder on the high-angle side.

Another scientific case which can benefit from tender x-ray DAFS is the study of

strong correlated functional oxide systems showing a metal-insulator transition (MIT).

In SrVO3 (SVO) (Yoshimatsu et al., 2010; Gu et al., 2014; Fouchet et al., 2016; Fouchet

et al., 2018), which is a paramagnetic metal in the bulk, the MIT can be induced by

decreasing the thickness to a few nanometers. Furthermore, the MIT can be influenced

by the strain imposed to the thin epitaxial SVO layer by different kind of substrates

such as a stressful SrTiO3 (STO) or a more matching (La,Sr)(Al,Ta)O3 (LSAT); the

presence of a cap layer (STO or LaAlO3 , LAO) can also stress the metallic SVO layer.

Hence, the study of the effects of under or upper strains on the local structure of all

elements in the SVO layer is crucial to disentangle the pure dimensional reduction

effect from strain effects in sandwiched SVO layers. It is highly relevant to correlate

these effects with the electronic structure and transport properties. If on the one

hand the local environment of V atoms (occupying the ”B” site of the perovskite)

can be accessed via XAS, on the other hand a study of the local structure and local
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density of states around the Sr atoms (occupying the ”A” site) as a function of the

SVO layer thickness requires the combined chemical and crystallographic selectivity

of DAFS, due to the presence of Sr in both STO and LSAT substrates. The use of

grazing incidence (GI) XAS is not an option considering the presence of a nanometric

cap layer. In Fig. 11 we show a DAFS spectrum of a LAO(3nm)/SVO(35nm)/STO

heterostructure in the region of the Sr L3 and L2 absorption edges, selecting the [001]

crystal plane reflection of SVO. As shown in Fig. 11 inset, the SVO [001] reflection can

be separated as a shoulder on the right side of the intense STO [001] substrate peak

in a XRD θ-2θ scan. The DAFS Sr L3-edge spectra have very high quality; simulating

them ab initio based on model strain structures will be very helpful in monitoring

and understanding the evolution of the Sr local density of unoccupied states and local

structure as a function of the sample thickness, through the MIT transition. We note

once more that access to the Sr L3 and L2 absorption edges is important because

this allows us to probe final states with d-symmetry, relevant in the chemical bonds.

Since these edges are located at rather low energies in the tender x-ray (1.94 and 2.0

keV), large δ angles (between 100 ◦ and 120 ◦ ) are necessary; the DAFS experiment is

possible indeed thanks to the wide δ range made available by FORTE diffractometer.

For uncapped samples, the SVO [100] reflection, accessible in GI, could also be used

for DAFS thanks to the possibility to switch from bulk to surface geometry anticipated

in section 3.1: choosing a GI-DAFS geometry would permit to enhance the diffraction

signal of the SVO layer with respect to the substrate one.

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4.2. Tender x-ray grazing incidence XAS

5
10
Reflected x-ray intensity (arb. units) XRR

XRF intensity (counts)

10
4
Si
P
1000
elastic
working angle: 100

XAS (arb. units)

q = 0.3 deg 10

0.1
800 1200 1600 2000 2400 2800
XRF energy (eV)

XAS
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8
Grazing angle (deg) Energy (eV)
(a) (b)

Fig. 12. (a) XRR curve in the vicinity of the P K-edge taken on a ODPA monolayer
deposited on Si substrate. (b) P K-edge GI-XAS spectrum of the same sample taken
in fluorescence mode with the SDD; the inset shows a fluorescence spectrum taken
at 2.3 keV in GI, where it is possible to discriminate the P Kα peak from the Si
Kα and elastic peaks.

In parallel to tender XRD and DAFS, FORTE diffractometer can also be used for

XAS experiments in the same energy range, thanks to the four-element SDD described

in section 3, which allows measurement of even ultra high dilute systems. In some cases,

when the sample geometry and Bragg angles at play allow it and self-absorption is not

an issue, XAS measurements can also be performed simultaneously to DAFS resulting

in time saving (Ciatto et al., 2018). In other cases, it may be interesting to choose

a specific incidence angle for the XAS measurements; this is often a need in exper-

iments on nanostructures, where confining the x-ray probe in a near-surface region

using a subcritical grazing angle allows reduction of the signal background gener-

ated from fluorescence lines originating from the substrate or buffer layers. In Fig.

12 we present XRR and P K-edge XAS spectra taken on a self-assembled monolayer

P-containing molecule, the octadecylphosphonic acid (ODPA), deposited on Si sub-

strate. This molecule is interesting for the monolayer contact doping process of Si and
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related nanostructures (Arduca et al., 2016), in which a subsequent annealing forces

P diffusion into the structure beneath the molecule; doping of nanostructured semi-

conductor is in fact a key issue for future nanoelectronics. As a prelimary information

to the monolayer contact doping process, it is interesting to know the local structure

of P in the as-deposited layers and the interaction and bonding with the Si substrate.

A study of a the local environment of P by fluorescence mode XAS on this system is

challenging since, even if the P Kα and Si Kα lines are separated by ∼ 300 eV and the

energy resolution of SIRIUS SDD is ∼ 130 eV, the strong Si fluorescence background

coming from the substrate would hinder any XAS measurements at the P K-edge in

wide-incident angle geometry. In fact, the fluorescence detector would saturate before

having a sufficiently high P Kα count rate. Using FORTE diffractometer, we can per-

form precise reflectivity curves to determinate the critical angle of the sample, using

the HV PILATUS3 100K-M detector for measuring the reflected signal (Fig. 12a).

Working at incidence angles smaller than the critical one for total reflection (we chose

θ = 0.3 ◦ in this case) allows limitation of the x-ray penetration to a few nm beneath

the surface, enhancing the monolayer contribution and improving the P/Si Kα count

ratio and signal to noise. This setup allows us to separate the P Kα signal located

between the Si Kα and elastic peaks in a fluorescence spectrum taken after the edge

(Fig 12b inset), and to obtain from its integration high quality P K-edge XAS spectra

of the deposited monolayer ODPA molecule (Fig 12b body).

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4.3. Reciprocal Space Mapping

Fig. 13. (a) RSM taken at 2.2 keV on InP wz nanowires grown on InP zb substrate
using the PILATUS3 100K-M detector. The close XRD spots of the wz [002] reflec-
tion and the zb [111] one can be separated in the map. A (red) curve representing
the count rate integrated along the Qy direction is superposed to the RSM. Qy is
the component of the momentum transfer in y direction (transversal to the x-ray
beam), Qz is the component perpendicular to the surface. The inset shows a SEM
image of the sample. (b) XRD θ-2θ scans performed in GI around the [100] reflection
of the InP wz nanowires for different energies around the P K-edge.

The availability of an in vacuum 2D detector mounted on the δ arm of the FORTE

diffractometer opens the possibility of acquiring XRD reciprocal space maps (RSMs)

in a fast way, in particular at energies corresponding to resonances of interest in the

tender x-ray. RSMs are very useful to evaluate strain in epitaxial systems and can be

associated to multiwavelength anomalous diffraction (MAD) (Hodeau et al., 2001) to

correlate specific strain regions with concentration gradients of the chemical elements

(Létoublon et al., 2004). Furthermore, in epitaxial templates, RSMs allow one to

easily discriminate different diffraction peaks coming from the active layer, buffers

and substrate, and to select the desired one for a DAFS analysis, even in case the

same chemical element is present in more than one layer of the template. This is the
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case shown in Fig. 13a, where we analyzed InP wurtzite (wz) [001] nanowires (NWs)

grown on InP zincblende (zb) [111] substrate at an energy (2.2 keV) just above the P

K-edge. Despite the low incidence energy, the wz [002] peak (δ = 112.07 ◦ ) and the

[111] zb one (δ = 112.79 ◦ ) are still rather close from each other. Nevertheless, the

reciprocal space map (RSM) of Fig. 13a allows separation of the two diffraction spots.

Another strategy to discriminate the structure of the NWs from the substrate one is

that of choosing the wz [100] reflection; this reflection (δ = 103.58 ◦ ) is accessible in

grazing incidence using the FORTE configuration shown in Fig. 2b and, as one can

see from the θ-2θ scans of Fig. 13b, has no substrate reflection immediately nearby.

5. Upgrade path

The upgrade path foreseen for the FORTE end-station will follow two lines. The first

line consists in the aforementioned completion of the sample environment and detector

set ups, beyond the basic functionality already implemented. This will include the

installation of a sample holder with electrical contacts for measurements under electric

field, interesting for the analysis of ferroelectric/piezoelectrics samples, a magnetic field

environment for XMCD and XRMS measurements, a cryostat and, finally, a vertical

high-resolution tender x-ray spectrometer with Von Hamos geometry (Anklamm et al.,

2014) for coupling XAS with X-ray Emission Spectroscopy (XES) in order to study the

occupied/unoccupied local density of states and ”local” band gaps in semiconductors

(Amidani et al., 2014).

The second line will go in parallel with the upgrade of SOLEIL ring towards a MBA

lattice in the next future. The foreseen two orders of magnitude increase in brilliance

will bring about an equivalent increase in the fraction of transverse coherence of the

x-ray and, as consequence, of the coherent photon flux available at the beamlines.

Moreover, in the case of SOLEIL ring, the performance improvement will be particu-
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 36

larly impressive in the tender x-ray region and for our kind of undulator source. This

will pave the way for the use of FORTE end-station for coherent diffraction imag-

ing (CDI) in Bragg geometry (Pfeifer et al., 2006). It is worth remarking here that

progress in the development of robust single photon counting 2D detectors working in

the tender x-ray with pixel size smaller than in PILATUS (for example CMOS-based)

is expected in the next future. These new detectors would prevent from having lower

resolution in speckle sampling due to the limited maximum sample-detector distance

and consequent reduced speckle size.

The possibility to use a smaller and intense x-ray beam will call for an improvement

of the four-circle diffractometer SOC. The control architecture based on synchronized

Delta-Tau units described in section 3.5 opens up exciting perspectives in this sense.

In fact, since we know from the manufacturer that the SOC errors mainly origin from

the χ circle guiding and flexion, a full metrology of these systematic errors could be

carried out and the results injected as input in our control system to correct them in

real time using synchronized movements of one of the hexapods (e.g., BORA).

6. Conclusions

We presented a high vacuum diffractometer for tender x-ray diffraction and spec-

troscopy recently installed at the SIRIUS beamline of the French national synchrotron

source (synchrotron SOLEIL). This new end-station, called FORTE, is highly versatile

and opens exciting perspectives to the users offering different techniques in the tender

x-ray range: (GI)XRD, DAFS, (GI)XAS, XRR, GISAXS. The diffractometer allows

investigation of bulk samples as well as of surfaces, interfaces and nanostructures; it

has a sufficient number of circles and extended angular ranges to cover large volume

in reciprocal space and can work in the 10−8 mbar vacuum range despite the presence

of several in-vacuum motors. FORTE has been commissioned in the first semester
IUCr macros version 2.1.10: 2016/01/28
 37

2018 and it is nowadays open to the public user program. Selected results of the first

experiments performed have been shown as examples of its present potential. Finally,

an appealing upgrade path of the end-station is foreseen in the next future.

Acknowledgements

We thank all the other colleagues at SOLEIL (in particular from the vacuum, align-

ment, detector, optics, electronics and software group) who gave a contribution to

the conception and installation of the FORTE diffractometer. We thank the Symétrie

company (Nı̂mes, France), and in particular O. Dupuy, for the excellent work in the

design and assembly of the diffractometer system based on our conceptual idea. G. C.

thanks P. Morin (SOLEIL) for advice during the project writing phase; J. Larsson

(MAX IV) for useful discussion; H. Renevier, A. Deschampes (Grenoble-INP), and

the SOLEIL Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) for supporting the funds research.

Finally, we thank M. De Luca (University of Basel), A. Polimeni (University of Rome

La Sapienza), C. Jagadish (Australian National University), D. De Salvador and F.

Sgarbossa (University of Padova) for providing some of the samples used in the exper-

iments presented in the manuscript. The project was funded by the Swedish Research

Council (Vetenskapsrådet MAX IV - SOLEIL collaboration) and the Île-de-France

region (project ”FORTE”, DIM OXYMORE).

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