Performance and capabilities of the Canadian Dragon: The SGM beamline at the Canadian Light Source

The Canadian Dragon is a Spherical Grating Monochromator (SGM) beamline for the photon energy range between 250 and 2000 eV. The high flux from the source, a 45 mm planar undulator, allows for excellent performance in the difficult 1–2 keV range. Resolving powers comparable to those of the leading spectroscopy beamlines are routinely available. The beamline design employs toroidal refocusing optics to allow for two in-line endstation areas. The upstream experimental area hosts a dedicated UHV endstation with a Scienta SES-100 photoelectron energy analyzer. The downstream experimental area is primarily used for solid sample X-ray absorption studies, but can be fitted with a number of different endstations. A 1 metre long differential pumping section between the beamline optics and the second endstation area permits the analysis of non-UHV compatible samples, making the beamline suitable for many environmental or biological experiments.