NanoMAX beamline supplied by FMB

FMB Oxford was delighted to provide the beamline equipment for NanoMAX, the Hard X-ray Nanoprobe beamline at MAX IV. This included a highly stable Horizontal Double Crystal Monochromator/Cryocooler combination, a Focussing Mirror System and Diagnostic Modules, including White and Pink Beam Stops, Fluorescent Screens, Secondary Source Aperture and a NanoBPM for feedback control. This beamline was successfully manufactured, shipped and installed at MAX IV during 2015/6 and has the highest resolution of the MAX IV beamlines.

In this video Professor Ulrich Vogt, a member of the Work Group charged with building NanoMAX and an Instrument Scientist at the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm (KTH), explains the results on the measurement of test structures generated at KTH. Good measurement resolution at 100nm and below were obtained with a resolution of below 50nm being achievable once optimisation of the optics is completed and a new microscope installed. This will enable future applications in Physics and Biology to be developed.

 

Danish researchers from DTU Energy, led by Professor Jens Wenzel Andreasen shown at the top of the post, undertook first experiments on NanoMAX in December 2016 in order to support development on more efficient power production in solar cells with an added benefit of the cells being less energy intensive to manufacture. The successful first visit allowed data to be gathered that will be used in follow-up research.

The experiment was an investigation of the nanoscale elemental distribution of pulsed laser deposited layers of kesterite which is a naturally occurring material that can also be synthesised using a mix of copper, zinc, tin and sulphur. Studying the distribution of the elements in the kesterite layer will allow optimisation of future compounds in order to extract the maximum energy from a kesterite solar cell.

Further experiments will be undertaken in this field at MAX IV in the future and it will allow Professor Andreasen’s team to obtain results that cannot be achieved at beamlines in synchrotrons elsewhere.

Scattering maps of copper and zinc in kesterite samples studied at the NanoMAX beamline at MAX IV.
© DTU Energy, Denmark.