Inelastic X-ray scattering with high energy resolution — a new method for investigations of condensed matter

Abstract Inelastic X-ray scattering with high energy resolution has been developed as a new tool to investigate collective excitations in condensed matter. Energy transfers from 10 meV to 5 eV and wave vectors over the whole reciprocal space are accessible. The high energy resolution of 9 meV is achieved by extreme back reflection from perfect crystals at the instrument INELAX, which was recently installed at the storage ring at HASYLAB, Hamburg.