Versatile tabletop setup for picosecond time-resolved resonant soft-x-ray scattering and spectroscopy

We present a laser-driven, bright, and broadband (50 to 1500 eV) soft-x-ray plasma source with <10 ps pulse duration. This is employed in two complementary, laboratory-scale beamlines for time-resolved, magnetic resonant scattering spectroscopy, as well near-edge x-ray absorption fine-structure (NEXAFS) spectroscopy. In both beamlines, dedicated reflection zone plates (RZPs) are used single optical elements capture, disperse, focus the soft x rays, reaching resolving powers up E/ΔE > 1000, hybrid RZPs at NEXAFS beamline retaining consistent 500 throughout full spectral range, allowing time-efficient data acquisition. demonstrate versatility performance of our setup by selection spectroscopy experiments, which so far have not been possible on laboratory scale. Excellent quality, combined experimental flexibility, renders approach true alternative large-scale facilities, such synchrotron-radiation sources free-electron lasers.