High Resolution Soft X-ray Monochromator Design For Spectroscopies

A novel high resolution, high transmission soft x-ray monochromator design for synchrotron radiation is presented. This new design is best described as a return to simplicity. The basic ideas of this design are 1) using simple and high quality optical elements exclusively 2) utilizing a decoupled optical arrangement to suppress astigmatic coma aberration 3) eliminating the defocus aberration with a movable exit slit and 4) having a very simple wavelength scanning mechanism. Although the ideal surface figure for the optical elements is cylinder, optical ray tracing has confirmed that the replacement by a spherical figure will not degrade the performance. This theoretical design is referred as Cylindrical Element Monochromator.