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BM30

Synopsis

FAME is dedicated to X-ray absorption spectroscopy. FAME covers a wide variety of scientific fields, materials science, biophysics, chemistry but focuses mainly in geochemical sciences where, in most cases, the probed elements are highly diluted.
Status:  open

Disciplines

  • Environmental Sciences
  • Earth and Planetary Sciences
  • Chemistry
  • Life Sciences
  • Physics
  • Materials and Engineering
  • Cultural Heritage

Applications

  • Hydrothermal fluids
  • Mineralogy
  • Geochemistry and soil (speciation of heavy metals in a natural or polluted soil)
  • Geochemistry and biological systems (cells, plants etc. in relation to toxicological studies, phytoremediation etc.)
  • Structural biology
  • Catalysis
  • Electrochemistry
  • Physic and material sciences

Techniques

  • XAS - X-ray absorption spectroscopy
  • EXAFS - extended X-ray absorption fine structure
  • XANES - X-ray absorption near-edge structure
  • XRF - X-ray fluorescence

Energy range

  • 4.8 - 40.0  keV

Beam size

  • Minimum (H x V) : 200.0 x 100.0  µm²
  • Maximum (H x V) : 200.0 x 100.0  µm²

Sample environments

  • Large volume high-pressure/high-temperature vessel (0-1500 bars; 20-1400°C)
  • Liquid helium "orange" cryostat (5-300K)

Detectors

  • 30-element Ge solid state detector (Canberra) for fluorescence measurement
  • silicon drift detectors (Vortex) for fluorescence measurement
  • Si diodes (Hamamatsu) for monitoring and transmitted intensity measurements

Technical details

FAME was constructed to meet scientific requests coming primarily from the geochemistry community, in particular environmental sciences. X-ray absorption spectroscopy is an essential tool in this research domain in terms of sensitivity and selectivity (elements of interest are often diluted, long-range order can be limited): it yields crucial information, in particular, speciation. From the beginning, in 2002, the technical emphasis of FAME was directed at determining atomic environments at very low concentration, with an optimal resolution. Three experimental stations allow experiments on low-concentration elements (high dilution station), with a high fluorescence energy resolution (crystal analyzer spectrometer station) or a small spot size (micro-focus station).

[1] Proux et al., "FAME: A new beamline for X-ray absorption investigations of very-diluted systems of environmental, material & biological interests", Physica Scripta 115 (2005) 970-973.

[2] Proux et al., "Feedback system of a liquid-nitrogen-cooled double-crystal monochromator: design and performances", Journal of Synchrotron Radiation 13 (2006) 59-68.

[3] Hazemann et al., "High-resolution spectroscopy on an X-ray absorption beamline", Journal of Synchrotron Radiation 16 (2009) 283-292.