An active x-ray beamstop based on single crystal CVD diamond at beamline SWING

A compact active x-ray beamstop has been developed for the SWING beamline at Synchrotron SOLEIL with two main functions, blocking the x-ray beam directly transmitted by the sample to protect the Dectris EigerX4M 2D detector and monitoring its intensity. The beamstop is composed of a sensor inserted in a well of tungsten carbide. The sensor is based on a piece of free-standing single crystal chemical vapor deposited diamond used in the ionization chamber mode. The beamstop has been installed on the beamline detector stage within the detection vacuum chamber, just upstream of the large 2D detector. The intensity monitoring performance (rms noise over signal) is shown to be better than 0.06% and the linearity is shown to be better than 2% for over more than five decades. The beamstop has been calibrated between 5 and 16 keV to provide the photon flux measurements in absolute units (ph/s). The specific design of the beamstop increases the small-angle x-ray scattering q-range by a factor of 1.5 in the low angle side, as compared to the previous active beamstop, based on a more standard commercial Si diode. The beamstop has been available for three years for SWING user operation (5-17 keV). It is fully compatible with the different beamline operating modes and fluxes, except in the microbeam mode, where the very divergent beam becomes too large at the beamstop position, and the previous, larger, beamstop is then more appropriate.