The PolLux endstation of the Swiss Light Source: soft X-ray microscopy for Polymer Science and time resolved nanomagnetism
Dr. Simone Finizio (Paul Scherrer Institut, Villingen, Switzerland)

Scanning transmission x-ray microscopy (STXM) is a synchrotron-based non-invasive x-ray microscopy technique that can be employed for the investigation of micro- and nanostructured materials. This technique combines a high spatial resolution (for soft x-rays on the order of 10-15 nm) with a high temporal resolution (depending on the filling pattern of the synchrotron light source, either on the order of 10 or 100 ps). Furthermore, thanks to the use of monochromatic x-rays as probing mechanism, element-sensitive imaging can be carried out with STXM. The typical soft x-ray photon energies available (between ca. 100 eV and 2000 eV) allow the investigation of both carbon-based systems (e.g. polymers) and metallic systems (e.g. based on 3d transition metals). Furthermore, the elemental sensitivity of this technique, combined with the x-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) effect, allows for the investigation of the local magnetic configuration of magnetic materials and multilayers with sub-μm spatial and sub-ns temporal resolution.
In this presentation, an overview of the PolLux STXM endstation of the Swiss Light Source will be given. In particular, the FPGA-based time-resolved acquisition system installed at the PolLux endstation, which allows for the acquisition of time-resolved images with sub-ns temporal resolution, will be presented in detail.
Finally, several examples of projects that employed the instrumentation available at the PolLux endstation, both for Polymer science and for nanomagnetism will be presented. In particular, the time-resolved imaging of vortex and Skyrmion dynamics, and the imaging of magnetic Skyrmions combined with in-situ electrical transport measurements will be presented in detail.