Design and applications of a toroidal grating beamline

7'he National Synchrotron Light Laboratory (LNLS) has designed and built a beamline for vacuum ultraviolet photons in the s~ectral range from 12 to 310 eV, based on toroidal optical elements. The beamline was installed at the Center for Advanced Microstructures and I)evices/Lousiana State University (CAMDILSU) for testing, and saw synchrotron light for the first time on 19 October 1992. Commissioning is currently underway. Tolerance rec uirements for optical alignment will be discussed and correlated to the optical performance cbserved on initial operation of the beamline at CAMD. At the ultimate stored current expected at CAMD (400 mAQ1.2 GeV) the heat load on the beamline will exceed initial design parameters by a large factor. As remedial action a water cooled chamber for the first mirror ij being built at LNLS. A standard UVH compatible slit assembly will also be modified to : llow for active cooling. The thermal design relied, in both cases, on ray-tracing coupled to finite-element computer programs. A secondary instrument for the spectral range 39-180 eV Ivas built at LNLS using a small toroidal grating and a focal plane array detector system. It will be coupled to the LNLSICAMD beamline in Dec 1992. The expected photon flux, spectral range and resolution are well suited to applications in chernistry and physics. Soft :C-ray fluorescence experiments on boron and beryllium compounds are scheduled for earIy 993. Signal strength estimates show that these measurements can be done at the Toroidal Grating Monochromator (TGM) beamline installed at CAMD.