A multipurpose beamline for tests and developments in the field of x-ray optics and synchrotron radiation instrumentation in general is under construction at the Swiss Light Source (SLS) bending magnet X05DA. The beamline uses a newly developed UHV compatible, 100 mm thick, brazed CVD diamond vacuum window. The very compact cryogenically cooled channel cut Si(111) monochromator and bendable 1:1 toroidal focusing mirror at 7:75 m from the source point are installed inside the shielding tunnel. The beamline covers a photon energy range of about 6 to 17 keV.We expect 5x1011 photons=s within a 100 mu m spot and a resolving power of 1300. The monochromator and focusing mirror can be retracted independently for unfocused monochromatic and focused ''white'' light operation respectively.

A new ultrahigh-resolution photoemission electron microscope called PEEM3 is being developed and built at the Advanced Light Source (ALS). An electron mirror combined with a much-simplified magnetic dipole separator is to be used to provide simultaneous correction of spherical and chromatic aberrations. It is installed on an elliptically polarized undulator (EPU) beamline, and will be operated with very high spatial resolution and high flux to study the composition, structure, electric and magnetic properties of complex materials. The instrument has been designed and is described. The instrumental hardware is being deployed in 2 phases. The first phase is the deployment of a standard PEEM type microscope consisting of the standard linear array of electrostatic electron lenses. The second phase will be the installation of the aberration corrected upgrade to improve resolution and throughput. This paper describes progress as the instrument enters the commissioning part of the first phase.

In order to better understand the fundamental components that govern catalytic activity, two-dimensional model platinum nanocatalyst arrays have been designed and fabricated. These catalysts arrays are meant to model the interplay of the metal and support important to industrial heterogeneous catalytic reactions. Photolithography and sub-lithographic techniques such as electron beam lithography, size reduction lithography and nanoimprint lithography have been employed to create these platinum nanoarrays. Both in-situ and ex-situ surface science techniques and catalytic reaction measurements were used to correlate the structural parameters of the system to catalytic activity.

Absolute photoionization cross-section measurements for amixture of ground and metastable states of Xe4+, Xe5+, and Xe6+ arereported in the photon energy range of 4d-nf transitions, which occurwithin or adjacent to the 13.5 nm window for extreme ultravioletlithography light source development. The reported values allow thequantification of opacity effects in xenon plasmas due to these 4d-4fautoionizing states. The oscillator strengths for the 4d-4f and 4d-5ftransitions in Xeq+ (q=1-6) ions are calculated using nonrelativisticHartree-Fock and random phase approximations. These are compared withpublished experimental values for Xe+ to Xe3+ and with the valuesobtained from the present experimental cross-section measurements forXe4+ to Xe6+. The calculations assisted in the determination of themetastable content in the ion beams for Xe5+T and Xe6+. The experimentswere performed by merging a synchrotron photon beam generated by anundulator beamline of the Advanced Light Source with an ion beam producedby an electron cyclotron resonance ion source.