Structural Materials Science end-station at the Kurchatov Synchrotron Radiation Source: Recent instrumentation upgrades and experimental results

The Structural Materials Science end-station installed at the Kurchatov Synchrotron Radiation Source has been operating in the user mode since 2004. The facility is primarily devoted to combined structural studies of functional materials with the use of three basic synchrotron hard X-ray techniques, viz., powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XANES and EXAFS) and small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS). In the present paper, a brief description of the facility and recent developments of its instrumentation are given. Improved research capabilities of the facility are demonstrated with examples of recent experimental results.