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

The XMaS beamline is situated on dipole BM28 at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF). It has been designed to perform magnetic and high-resolution diffraction for a British Collaborating Research Group (CRG) over an energy range of 3–15 keV in a focused monochromatic beam mode. Since the beamline became operational in April 1998, various instrument developments have been made. These include both mechanical and opto-mechanical devices of general interest to the SR community, three of which are highlighted in 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 initial sample alignment, but also in mapping a sample for the location of single crystallites. Secondly, novel in-vacuum slits have been developed which allow definition of the beam footprint close to the sample. Thirdly, together with Huber Diffraction GmbH, an in-vacuum polarisation analyser for the analysis of magnetic scattering has been developed.