Experimental station for laser-based picosecond time-resolved x-ray absorption near-edge spectroscopy.

We present an experimental station designed for time-resolved X-ray Absorption Near-Edge Spectroscopy (XANES). It is based on ultrashort laser-plasma x-ray pulses generated from a table-top 100 mJ-class laser at 10 Hz repetition rate. A high transmission (10%-20%) x-ray beam line transport using polycapillary optics allows us to set the sample in an independent vacuum chamber, providing high flexibility over a wide spectral range from 0.5 up to 4 keV. Some XANES spectra are presented, demonstrating 1% noise level in only ~1 mn and ~100 cumulated laser shots. Time-resolved measurements are reported, indicating that the time resolution of the entire experimental station is 3 3 ± 0 6 ps rms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]