DEMETER beamline is specialized research installation using variable polarization radiation, the source of which is the EPU undulator (elliptically polarizing undulator).

The concept of the beamline DEMETER (Dual Microscopy and Electron Spectroscopy Beamline) assumes the coexistence of two measurement branches, in which the research end stations is the PEEM microscope (photoemission electron microscope) together with the addition of an electron column creating a Low Energy Electron Microscope (LEEM), all together constituting the SPELEEM system (Spectroscopic PhotoEmission and Low Energy Electron Microscope) and STXM (scanning transmission X-ray microscope).   

The PEEM/LEEM end station with standard equipment will allow for the creation and modification of research systems and imaging of their surfaces in a wide range of temperatures and with high resolution. The main advantage of the method is the ability to select the energy of excitations and the possibility of tuning to the characteristic edge of the absorption. The PEEM station is designed for real-time imaging of surface nanostructures at the mesoscale in the temperature range from -160 °C to 1200 °C. The microscope can measure flat samples prepared both ex-situ and in-situ. The available temperature range using liquid nitrogen is -100 °C and using liquid helium is -160 °C. 

A special advantage of the microscope is the possibility of simultaneous imaging with chemical and magnetic contrast using X-ray magnetic circular and linear dichroism (XMCD and XMLD) on the corresponding absorption edges of ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic materials.

The parent institution for the PEEM end station is the Jerzy Haber Institute of Catalysis and Surface Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences (ICSC PAS). Thanks to the collaboration of SOLARIS with the Jerzy Haber Institute of Catalysis and Surface Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences and the AGH University of Science and Technology in Kraków (AGH-UST) on March 2, 2016, an appropriate agreement was signed (event information) under which the PEEM end station is made available to Users in the synchrotron facility. As part of the cooperation, the infrastructure for the end station is maintained and developed, and the support of the microscope operators during the measurements is provided. 

The STXM end-station will provide chemical analysis at the nanoscale through the combination of X-ray absorption spectrometry and microscopy. 

Potential application of the beamline:

• Magnetic order research 
• Domain structure research 
• Imaging of the chemical composition 
• Biomolecular spectroscopy 
• Fluorescence detection. 

The ICSC PAS and AGH-UST invite users who have been granted beam time to cooperate: 

• an offer of the Jerzy Haber Institute of Catalysis and Surface Chemistry includes carrying out complementary measurements with the Institute's research infrastructure, including LEEM microscope. 
• the AGH University of Science and Technology offers a possibility to perform complementary measurements in the laboratories of the Academic Centre for Materials and Nanotechnology, e.g., of resistivity, magnetoresistivity and specific heat at low temperatures (50 mK – 30 K) and at high magnetic fields (up to 14 T) and in the laboratory of the Group of Surface Nanostructures, Faculty of Physics and Applied Computer Science, e.g., of magnetic hysteresis loops by means of magnetooptical Kerr effect.  

Beamline parameters