Instrument developments for magnetic and high-resolution diffraction at the XMaS beamline

The XMaS beamline is situated on dipole BM28 at the European Synchrotron Ra diation Facility (ESRF). It has been designed to perform magnetic and high- resolution diffraction for a British Collaborating Research Group (CRG) ove r an energy range of 3-15 keV in a focused monochromatic beam mode. Since t he beamline became operational in April 1998, various instrument developmen ts have been made. These include both mechanical and opto-mechanical device s of general interest to the SR community, three of which are highlighted i n this paper. Firstly, a motorised x, y, z sample mount capable of holding an APD cryostat has been developed; this device is useful not only for init ial sample alignment, but also in mapping a sample for the location of sing le crystallites. Secondly, novel in-vacuum slits have been developed which allow definition of the beam footprint close to the sample. Thirdly, togeth er with Huber Diffraction GmbH, an in-vacuum polarisation analyser for the analysis of magnetic scattering has been developed. (C) 2001 Elsevier Scien ce B.V. All rights reserved.