New opportunities at the Materials Science Beamline at ESRF to exploit high energy nano-focus X-ray beams

A new end station for high energy (30–70 keV) X-ray diffraction experiments with nano-focus (150–500 nm) beam sizes has been installed at beamline ID11 at the ESRF. We review some of the early results from this instrument. High resolution crystal structure determination and refinement could be achieved with samples smaller than 3 μm in size. Near surfaces, the in-plane strain has been mapped as a function of depth in an oxide coating only 6 μm in thickness with 200 nm resolution. Via scanning diffraction tomography methods, then type-III intra-grain strain fields have been measured for fine-grained materials (<5 μm grain size). With the ESRF Extremely Brilliant Source upgrade (ESRF-EBS project), as well as new detectors coming online, we expect many new opportunities in the near future. Higher X-ray flux will bring about decreased scanning times, higher spatial resolution, and larger Q ranges. While scanning techniques can pose challenges for data reduction, they offer a new way to study a wide range of materials, and mapping of larger sample volumes at the highest spatial resolution becomes feasible.