A Next-Generation Hard X-Ray Nanoprobe Beamline for In Situ Studies of Energy Materials and Devices

The Advanced Photon Source is developing a suite of new X-ray beamlines to study materials and devices across many length scales and under real conditions. One of the flagship beamlines of the APS upgrade is the In Situ Nanoprobe (ISN) beamline, which will provide in situ and operando characterization of advanced energy materials and devices under varying temperatures, gas ambients, and applied fields, at previously unavailable spatial resolution and throughput. Examples of materials systems include inorganic and organic photovoltaic systems, advanced battery systems, fuel cell components, nanoelectronic devices, advanced building materials and other scientifically and technologically relevant systems. To characterize these systems at very high spatial resolution and trace sensitivity, the ISN will use both nanofocusing mirrors and diffractive optics to achieve spots sizes as small as 20 nm. Nanofocusing mirrors in Kirkpatrick–Baez geometry will provide several orders of magnitude increase in photon flux at a spatial resolution of 50 nm. Diffractive optics such as zone plates and/or multilayer Laue lenses will provide a highest spatial resolution of 20 nm. Coherent diffraction methods will be used to study even small specimen features with sub-10 nm relevant length scale. A high-throughput data acquisition system will be employed to significantly increase operations efficiency and usability of the instrument. The ISN will provide full spectroscopy capabilities to study the chemical state of most materials in the periodic table, and enable X-ray fluorescence tomography. In situ electrical characterization will enable operando studies of energy and electronic devices such as photovoltaic systems and batteries. We describe the optical concept for the ISN beamline, the technical design, and the approach for enabling a broad variety of in situ studies. We furthermore discuss the application of hard X-ray microscopy to study defects in multi-crystalline solar cells, one of the lines of inquiries for which the ISN is being developed.