Crystal Analyser Laboratory at the ESRF

The Crystal Analyser Laboratory (CAL) of the X-ray Optics Group has been in operation since February 2015 and covers an area of roughly 120 m² including a "clean room" of 60 m² where the main processing tools are installed. The laboratory is completely dedicated to the manufacture of spherically (cylindrically) bent analyser crystals for spectroscopic studies. There are currently six beamlines at the ESRF requiring such crystal analysers and others are in the design phase. The domain of applications is quite wide: Chemistry (energy storage materials, batteries), Physics (correlated electron systems, liquid and glass dynamics), Earth science, Environmental science, Catalysis, Material science and Biology.

The laboratory is equipped with a combination of commercial instruments (wafer grinder, wafer dicing saw) as well as in-house designed fabrication and characterisation systems (for anodic bonding, glue dispersion and inspection).

The CAL manufactures essentially 3 types of analyser crystals (bent, bent-diced and diced) with the different types satisfying the various experimental conditions required by our scientists in term of energy resolution, intensity and collected solid angle (see picture).

Since the beginning of operation the laboratory has produced around 200 analysers of the different types both for ESRF beamlines and other laboratories around the world.

In this talk I will give an overview of the different technologies used for crystal analyser manufacture, describe the different processing capabilities of the CAL and describe the main development activities which are currently in progress.