LAUSR

Synchrotron radiation newS, Vol. 31, No. 5, 2018 9 Introduction New scientific frontiers in biomedicine, materials science, and nanotechnology make increasing use of characterization methods at the mesoscopic and nanometer scale. These studies of heterogeneous samples are most often three-dimensional and require multiple and stable acquisitions where the spatial and/or angular position of the sample is changed in a well-controlled way. The high average brightness of synchrotron sources, which will be further enhanced by the future diffraction-limited storage rings [1], is invaluable in this context. Several nanoscale characterization methods have become available using highly coherent probes, nanofocused probes, or both [2–8]. However, the required nanopositioning and stability (absence of vibrations and long-term drifts) remain huge challenges, especially when the environment of the specimen needs to be controlled. The European Synchrotron has developed a number of specialized nanoprobe endstations covering energies from the tender X-ray regime (the X-ray microscopy beamline ID21 under refurbishment [9]), over moderate X-ray energies (the micro-diffraction imaging beamline ID01 [10], the microfocus beamline ID13 [11], the nano-imaging beamline ID16A [12], and the nano-analysis beamline ID16B [13]), to the high-energy regime (the materials science beamline ID11 [14] and the future endstation of the high-energy beamline ID31 [15]). In this article, we develop the specific case of the Nano-Imaging beamline ID16A that provides routine imaging on the nanoscale with a sub-13 nm X-ray beam with a very high flux. At the expense of flexibility, it exploits one of the most advanced nanopositioning endstations. We introduce its specifications, discuss the specific design choices, and illustrate the performance with metrology and X-ray experimental results.