[en] A new spectrometer, utilizing a reflection zone plate based grating, for the Mn L fluorescence line was recently designed, manufactured and tested at Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin. The angular acceptance of the grating is ∼0.011 rad² the absolute efficiency at 640 eV is 16%, and the energy resolution, for a detector slit size of 120 μm and in simultaneous spectra registration mode, is about λ/Δλ ∼ 100 FWHM.

[en] We propose the use of reflection zone plates (RZP) for two main applications: focusing and spectroscopy. A RZP combines three optical properties – reflection, imaging and dispersion – in one optical element. Having been successfully implemented into an X-ray fs-beamline at BESSY II, RZPs could be an important device in upcoming new high brilliance X-ray sources such as Free Electron Lasers (FEL). The reduction of the number of optical elements in a beamline would allow the highest possible transmission and satisfy the purpose of conserving the unique properties of FELs such as their high coherence.

[en] SwissFEL requires the monitoring of the photon spectral distribution at a repetition rate of 100 Hz for machine optimization and experiment online diagnostics. The Photon Single Shot Spectrometer has been designed for the photon energy range of 4 keV to 12 keV provided by the Aramis beamline. It is capable of measuring the spectrum in a non-destructive manner, with an energy resolution of Δ  E / E  = (2–5) × 10"−"5 over a bandwidth of 0.5% on a shot-to-shot basis. This article gives a detailed description about the technical challenges, structures, and considerations when building such a device, and to further enhance the performance of the spectrometer.

[en] We suggest optical schemes for the European X-ray Free Electron Laser facility (XFEL.EU) in Hamburg: a single element X-ray spectrometer on the basis of a reflection zone plate (RZP) for single-shot diagnostics; and a two-element soft X-ray spectrometer on the basis of two RZPs to carry out Resonant Inelastic X-ray Scattering (RIXS) experiments. With this setup, a full map of the sample spectrum is obtainable in a single measurement. The main advantage of using zone plates is the possibility to enable dispersion and focusing in one step. Moreover, highest possible X-ray transmission is achieved by using the minimum number of optical elements. Taking into account the European XFEL beam parameters, our simulations, concerning the RIXS experiment, produced very promising results, reaching an energy resolution (E/ΔE) of up to 30,000 at photon energy of 1 keV. When applied as a single shot spectrometer the energy resolution for RZP is of the same order of magnitude.