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The Ultrafast Transient Experimental Facility (UTEF) at Chongqing University is constructing a next‐generation angle‐resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) beamline designed to simultaneously achieve sub‐meV energy resolution, continuous photon energy tunability (10–40 eV), high photon flux (>1012 photons s−1 at the sample position), full polarization control, and ultra‐low‐temperature sample environments (<1.5 K). Leveraging the unique advantages of UTEF's low‐energy (0.5 GeV), high‐beam‐current (500–1000 mA) storage ring, the beamline is capable of generating high‐flux EUV radiation, enabling detailed exploration of complex quantum materials. The beamline employs two high‐groove‐density gratings and one low‐groove‐density grating to achieve, respectively, an energy resolving power exceeding 100000 and photon fluxes greater than 5×1013 photons s−1. A dual‐endstation layout enables flexible operation for both ultra‐high‐resolution measurements at ultra‐low temperatures and large‐angle, high‐flux spin‐resolved experiments. Through comprehensive optical optimization—including mirror coatings, customized grating groove profiles and precision focusing geometry—the system can deliver photon flux exceeding 1014 photons s−1 (0.1% bandwidth)−1 with a spatial beam spot size of approximately 30 µm, while maintaining sub‐0.4 meV energy resolution. This work presents the optical design and projected performance of the UTEF ARPES beamline. The Ultrafast Transient Experimental Facility at Chongqing University is developing an advanced ARPES beamline capable of 0.4 meV energy resolution within the 10–40 eV photon energy range, featuring photon flux over 1012 photons s−1, tunable polarization and ultra‐low temperatures below 1.5 K. Leveraging a 0.5 GeV, 500–1000 mA storage ring, the design employs a dual‐endstation setup for ultra‐high‐resolution and high‐flux spin‐resolved experiments.

Grating monochromators are crucial optical elements in soft X‐ray free‐electron laser (XFEL) beamlines. Accurately evaluating the properties of grating monochromators with near‐realistic XFEL pulse is of paramount importance. In this study, we utilize the start‐to‐end pulse propagation method to conduct a characterization of grating monochromator performance at the FEL‐1 beamline of S3FEL. The primary focuses include evaluating the monochromator's resolving power, assessing the impact of longitudinal source jitter on resolving power, analyzing diffraction effects due to grating's limited aperture and investigating the influence of thermal deformation. The novelty of this research lies in the direct use of FEL pulse propagation, providing simulation results that are more reliable than those obtained using Gaussian sources. The simulations reveal that the resolving power of the monochromator is significantly influenced by the aforementioned factors, highlighting the importance of considering real FEL beam characteristics in the design and evaluation of grating monochromators for FEL applications. A start‐to‐end FEL pulse propagation method has been developed to evaluate grating monochromator performance, quantifying the impacts of longitudinal source jitter, finite‐aperture diffraction, and thermal deformation on resolving power, thereby offering realistic guidance for FEL beamline design and optimization.

The preliminary design and expected performance for the Angle‐Resolved Photoemission Spectroscopy (ARPES) branchline at Shenzhen Superconducting Soft X‐ray Free Electron Laser (S3FEL) is presented. A time‐delay‐compensated monochromator (TDCM) in symmetric layout has been designed for spectral selection and pulse duration preservation. The TDCM is optimized using the six‐dimensional K‐matrix method and a start‐to‐end simulation of the beamline system using Fourier optics was performed. Numerical estimations indicate that the TDCM can achieve a time–bandwidth product approaching the Fourier‐transform limit.

In beamline design, there are many floating parameters that need to be tuned; manual optimization is time‐consuming and laborious work, and it is also difficult to obtain well optimized results. Moreover, there are always several objectives that need to be considered and optimized at the same time, making the problem more complicated. For example, asking for both the flux and energy to be as large as possible is a usual requirement, but the changing trends of these two variables are often contradictory. In this study, a novel optimization method based on a multi‐objective genetic algorithm is introduced, the first attempt to optimize a beamline with multiple objectives. In order to verify this method, beamline ID17 of the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) is taken as an example for simulation, with energy and dose rate as objectives. The result shows that this method can be effective for beamline optimization, and an optimal solution set can be obtained within 30 generations. For the solutions whose objectives are both improved compared with those of ESRF beamline ID17, the maximums of energy and dose rate increase by around 7% and 20%, respectively. A universal optimization simulation method based on a multi‐objective genetic algorithm is introduced; this is the first attempt to optimize the elements of a beamline using this method.

With the rapid development of X‐ray free‐electron lasers (XFELs) that can generate ultrashort X‐ray pulses with a duration range from attoseconds to femtoseconds, the study of ultrashort XFEL pulse propagation in beamline systems is increasingly important, especially in dispersive beamline systems. We developed a 6D phase space ray‐tracing method to simulate pulse propagation in dispersive soft X‐ray optical systems. We validated this method by simulating a typical dispersive optical system: a grating monochromator. The simulation indicated that the spatiotemporal properties such as pulse front tilt, pulse front rotation and angular dispersion can be described. Using this approach, we performed a start‐to‐end simulation of the Shenzhen Superconducting Soft X‐ray Free Electron Laser (S3FEL) FEL‐1 beamline. Compared with the 3D pulse propagation method based on Fourier optics, this significantly reduces the simulation time. Our work provides a useful tool for X‐ray beamline systems design. This work develops a 6D phase space tracing module in the FURION software. The 6D phase space tracing provides a solution for the rapid simulation of ultrashort pulse propagation in X‐ray beamlines, especially in dispersive beamline systems.

X-ray diffraction with synchrotron radiation (SR) has revealed the atomic structures of numerous biological macromolecules including proteins and protein complexes, nucleic acids and their protein complexes, viruses, membrane proteins and drug targets. The bright SR X-ray beam with its small divergence has made the study of weakly diffracting crystals of large biological molecules possible. The ability to tune the wavelength of the SR beam to the absorption edge of certain elements has allowed anomalous scattering to be exploited for phase determination. We review the developments at synchrotron sources and beamlines from the early days to the present time, and discuss the significance of the results in providing a deeper understanding of the biological function, the design of new therapeutic molecules and time-resolved studies of dynamic events using pump-probe techniques. Radiation damage, a problem with bright X-ray sources, has been partially alleviated by collecting data at low temperature (100 K) but work is ongoing. In the most recent development, free electron laser sources can offer a peak brightness of hard X-rays approximately 10ɸ times brighter than that achieved at SR sources. We describe briefly how early experiments at FLASH and Linear Coherent Light Source have shown exciting possibilities for the future.

The ForMAX beamline at the MAX IV Laboratory provides multiscale and multimodal structural characterization of hierarchical materials in the nanometre to millimetre range by combining small‐ and wide‐angle X‐ray scattering with full‐field microtomography. The modular design of the beamline is optimized for easy switching between different experimental modalities. The beamline has a special focus on the development of novel fibrous materials from forest resources, but it is also well suited for studies within, for example, food science and biomedical research. ForMAX is a new beamline at the MAX IV Laboratory, providing multiscale and multimodal structural characterization by combining small‐ and wide‐angle X‐ray scattering with full‐field tomographic imaging.

A constant-imaging-distance fixed-included-angle grating monochromator has been designed and constructed at the Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility to expand the covered energy range of the X-ray test beamline. The design and first commissioning results are presented in this paper. Initial results reveal the good performance of this monochromator, with a photon energy resolving power estimated to be over 8000 at the krypton M -edge for high line density gratings and a −1st order diffraction efficiency of the grating better than 30% for low line density gratings.

The Biomedical Imaging and Therapy facility of the Canadian Light Source comprises two beamlines, which together cover a wide X‐ray energy range from 13 keV up to 140 keV. The beamlines were designed with a focus on synchrotron applications in preclinical imaging and veterinary science as well as microbeam radiation therapy. While these remain a major part of the activities of both beamlines, a number of recent upgrades have enhanced the versatility and performance of the beamlines, particularly for high‐resolution microtomography experiments. As a result, the user community has been quickly expanding to include researchers in advanced materials, batteries, fuel cells, agriculture, and environmental studies. This article summarizes the beam properties, describes the endstations together with the detector pool, and presents several application cases of the various X‐ray imaging techniques available to users. The current state of the Biomedical Imaging and Therapy beamlines of the Canadian Light Source is described and new capabilities are presented.