Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A 540 (2005) 42–67 The materials science beamline at the Swiss Light Source: design and realization B.D. Patterson a,Ã , R. Abela a , H. Auderset a , Q. Chen a , F. Fauth a,1 , F. Gozzo a , G. Ingold a , H. Ku¨ hne a , M. Lange a , D. Maden a , D. Meister a , P. Pattison b , Th. Schmidt a , B. Schmitt a , C. Schulze-Briese a , M. Shi a , M. Stampanoni a , P.R. Willmott a a Swiss Light Source Project, Paul Scherrer Institute, WLGA 233, CH-5232 Villigen, Switzerland b SNBL at ESRF, BP 220, F-38043 Grenoble Cedex 9, France Received 1 October 2004; accepted 3 November 2004 Available online 16 December 2004 Abstract The Materials Science Beamline at the Swiss Light Source (SLS) has been designed to produce hard X-rays in the photon-energy range 5–40 keV, at an intermediate energy (2.4 GeV) synchrotron. To this end, it employs a novel ‘‘minigap wiggler’’. Important issues in the design and realization of the beamline are the high heat load, robust system design, flexibility of operation and user-friendliness. A conventional collimating-mirror/sagittally focusing double- crystal monochromator/focusing mirror optics has been chosen with approximately 1:1 symmetry. Established component designs have been used wherever possible. Three serial end-stations are served with X-rays. Besides the minigap wiggler, other novel or unusual features are: continuous ‘‘top-up’’ injection in the SLS storage-ring, a rotating carbon ‘‘cup’’ filter in the beamline front-end, angles and bending radii of the optics mirrors which are adjusted at each change in photon-energy and special experimental-station equipment including high-speed one- and two-dimensional semiconductor detectors for powder and surface diffraction and a two-dimensional ‘‘Bragg magnifier’’ for tomography. In this work, a comparison is made between predicted and measured beamline properties, and Appendices with useful formulae and algorithms are provided. r 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. PACS: 07.85.Qe; 41.50.+h; 61.10.i; 87.59.e Keywords: Synchrotron radiation; Materials science; X-ray diffraction; Tomography ARTICLE IN PRESS www.elsevier.com/locate/nima 0168-9002/$-see front matter r 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.nima.2004.11.018 Ã Corresponding author. Tel.: ++41563104524; fax: ++41563104551. E-mail address: bruce.patterson@psi.ch (B.D. Patterson). 1 Present address: European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, F-38043 Grenoble, France.