The Advanced Photon Source
a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science User Facility

Overview: HERIX Spectrometer

HERIX is a high energy resolution (1.5 meV - 4 circle diffractometer) inelastic x-ray scattering spectrometer located at the 30-ID beamline of the APS.  It is used for collective excitation (phonon) measurements in ordered (single crystal, polycrystalline, powder samples) and disordered (liquids, soft matter, amorphous samples) systems.

Scientific disciplines:
  • Fundamental physics
  • Materials science
  • Life science
  • Geophysics
Specifications:
  • Incident energy is 23.71 keV
  • Energy resolution of 1.5 meV
  • Energy transfer -200 to 200 meV
  • Maximum momentum transfer of 75 nm-1
  • Momentum resolution of +/-0.65 nm-1 (can be improved by slits)
  • 9 momentum transfers recorded simultaneously
  • Spot size (H x V):
    • focused: 35 µm x 10 µm
    • unfocused: 1.8 mm x 0.4 mm
The following sample environments are available:
  • Low/high temperature (4-800 K) using a closed-cycle cryostat
  • High temperature (300-1000 K) using an in-vacuum heating stage
  • High pressure (0.2-120 GPa) using a helium-driven membrane diamond anvil cell (DAC)
    • Can be used at ambient and low temperatures
    • An in situ ruby fluorescence system for pressure determination
    • A high-pressure DAC preparation/loading laboratory and gas loading system are available for users at the APS.
    • Please communicate with beamline scientist for details on how to use the Diamond Anvil Cell (DAC) for your experiment. We have a limited number of DACs available for users.  Users are expected to prepare/load their sample into the cell. We encourage inexperienced users to collaborate with experts.
  • Magnetic field (<2.2 T @ RT) using a permanent magnet
    • Can be used inside the cryostat
    • The magnetic field direction can be aligned to be in or out of the scattering plane
  • Uniaxial strain (+/- 6 μm @ RT) using cryogenic strain cell from Razorbill
    • The cell allows for tensile and compressive strains to samples
    • Can be used inside cryostat (+/- 3 μm @ 10 K)