The emmitted electrons from any area of a sample are a measure of the localized x-ray absorption. Using the essentailly the same optics as for a comercial scanning electron microscope a picture of the localized abosption of an incident x-ray beam can be obtained (see figure on the right). When one brings the incident beam energy near an absoprtion edge, the enhanced absoprtion provides a contrast mechanism to see the elemental distribution of a material. Furthermore, magnetic contrast canobtained from the asymmetry in photoelectron yield for opposite helicities of CP x-rays. Thus X-ray photoemission electron microscopy (X-PEEM) can be used image the magnetic configuration of large arrays of nanoscale magnetic elements with varying shapes, sizes and magnetostatic interactions between elements.

Using the pulsed nature of the synchrotron beam allows for time resolved studies.