The new ESRF thin film x-ray reflectometer

The ESRF Multilayer Laboratory has been operating a thin film x-ray reflectometer for more than 20 years. It is a critical piece of equipment needed to calibrate the multilayer deposition system and to characterize thin film based optical elements. The previous instrument had a number of drawbacks such as limitations in sample size and weight. In addition, the outdated control electronics had to be replaced. The new x-ray reflectometer was designed to handle up to 1 m long samples with a weight of 40 kg while maintaining a positioning accuracy of a few micrometres. The instrument includes a Cu K alpha micro-focus source followed by a Montel multilayer collimator. It can be operated in monochromatic or pink mode by inserting or removing a channel cut crystal monochromator. This work will give an overview on the mechanical and optical design. It will summarize performance benchmarks and give examples of measured x-ray spectra.