BLADE delivers soft X-ray beam in the energy range from 0.4 to 2 keV. The research focuses on the magnetisation and the magnetic structure of novel nanostructured systems. These magnetic properties can be probed thanks to high dichroic effects in the soft X-ray region. The dichroic effect can be studied both in absorption and scattering experiments.

Two APPLE II undulators produce photons with arbitrary linear or circular polarisation. A high energy resolution is achieved using a plane grating monochromator. For increasing the sensitivity of dichroism measurements, a fast polarisation switching and a fast energy scanning have been implemented.

On the scattering branch, thereis a soft X-ray diffractometer, RASOR, which consists of a three-circle diffractometer with a polarisation analyser. The concept is built around a Janis helium cryostat allowing soft x-ray reflectivity and diffraction from samples temperatures down to 12 K. RASOR is now available to users.

On the absorption branch, a high field magnet can be used for performing magnetic dichroism experiments. The magnetic field is supplied by a superconducting split-pair coil with a uni-axial magnetic field of 14 T along the incident beam direction. Sample can be cooled by variable temperature inserts currently down to 3 K. The magnet system is available to users.