High-resolution spectroscopy on an X-ray absorption beamline

A bent-crystal spectrometer based on the Rowland circle geometry has beeninstalled and tested on the BM30b/FAME beamline at the EuropeanSynchrotron Radiation Facility to improve its performances. The energyresolution of the spectrometer allows different kinds of measurements to beperformed, including X-ray absorption spectroscopy, resonant inelastic X-rayscattering and X-ray Raman scattering experiments. The simplicity of theexperimentaldevicemakesiteasilyimplementedonaclassicalX-rayabsorptionbeamline. This improvement in the fluorescence detection is of particularimportance when the probed element is embedded in a complex and/or heavymatrix, for example in environmental sciences.