Design and characterization of an undulator beamline optimized for small-angle coherent X-ray scattering at the Advanced Photon Source

An undulator beamline and small-angle-scattering spectrometer have been implemented at the Advanced Photon Source. The beamline is optimized for performing small-angle wide-bandpass coherent X-ray scattering measurements, and has been characterized by measuring static X-ray speckle patterns from isotropically disordered samples. Statistical analyses of the speckle patterns have been performed from which the speckle widths and contrast are extracted versus wavevector transfer and sample thickness. The measured speckle widths and contrast are compared with an approximation to the intensity correlation function and found to be in good agreement with its predictions.