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An overview of the high magnetic field facility for neutron scattering at Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin (HZB) is given. The facility enables elastic and inelastic neutron scattering experiments in continuous magnetic fields up to 26.3 T combined with temperatures down to 0.6 K.

A versatile UHV-polarimeter for the EUV XUV spectral range is described which incorporates two optical elements: a phase retarder and a reflection analyzer. Both optics are azimuthally rotatable around the incident synchrotron radiation beam and the incidence angle is freely selectable. This allows for a variety of reflectometry, polarimetry and ellipsometry applications on magnetic or non-magnetic samples and multilayer optical elements.

The flexible end station “FEMTOSPEX Molecules and Surfaces”, which will enable time resolved photoemission studies in the future at HZB, is presented.

LiXEdrom is an experimental station dedicated to high resolution RIXS measurements on liquid samples. It is equipped with two VLS gratings and advanced photon detector (MCP/phosphorous screen/CCD), covering soft X-ray range of 200 – 1200 eV. The efficient differential pumping and cooling systems ensure successful executions of X-ray spectroscopy on liquid samples in vacuum. Liquid samples are introduced into the vacuum chamber by micro-jet or flow-cell techniques.

U49/2 PGM1 is one of HZB open-port VUV beamlines. Therefore and due to the fact that it delivers highest flux with very acceptable energy resolution it is the most heavily booked BESSY II beamline. Earlier work has largely focused on surface science and catalysis. After shut down of the former U41 PGM an increasing number of experiments on liquids and solutions are carried out.

Although the chamber named ALICE was designed for the analysis of magnetic hetero- and nanostructures via resonant magnetic x-ray scattering, the instrument is not limited to this technique. Static measurements involve the possibility to use scattering and spectroscopy synchrotron based techniques (photon-in photon-out, photon-in electron-out, and coherent scattering). Dynamic experiments require either laser or magnetic field pulses to excite the spin system followed by x-ray probe in the time domain from nano- to femtosecond delay times. In this temporal range, the demagnetization/remagnetization dynamics and magnetization precession in a number of magnetic materials (metals, alloys, and magnetic multilayers) can be probed in an element specific manner. The versatility of the instrument was tested by a series of pilot experiments, pointing out ALICE as one of the most demanded instruments at the Helmholtz-Zentrum in Berlin.

The coherent soft-x-ray scattering experiment CXS has been developed to study nano-structured magnetic and nonmagnetic thin film samples in transmission or reflection geometry. A nanometer precision movable sample stage in a 1 Tesla magnet vector field together with a movable CCD detector, variable in sample – CCD distance, allows both XMCD and XMLD experiments in transmission and reflection as well as imaging techniques such as Fourier transform holography and ptychography.

Beamline UE49-SGM is a dedicated high-flux soft x-ray beamline, spanning the energy range of 95 eV to 1400 eV. Its micrometer focus makes it ideally suitable for investigation of small or inhomogeneous samples both with spectroscopic methods and coherent scattering as well as imaging techniques with full polarization control.

Optical design and technical data of the high-resolution normal incidence monochromator (NIM) beamline U125-2 NIM are presented.

The At-Wavelength Metrology Facility at BESSY-II is dedicated to short-term characterization of novel UV, EUV and XUV optical elements, such as diffraction gratings, mirrors, multilayers and nano-optical devices like reflection zone plates. It consists of an Optics Beamline PM-1 and a Reflectometer in a clean-room hutch as a fixed end station. The bending magnet Beamline is a Plane Grating Monochromator beamline (c-PGM) equipped with an SX700 monochromator. The beamline is specially tailored for efficient high-order suppression and stray light reduction. The versatile 11-axes UHV-Reflectometer can house life-sized optical elements, which are fully adjustable and of which the reflection properties can be measured in the full incidence angular range as well as in the full azimuthal angular range to determine polarization properties.

The KMC-2 beamline is dedicated to provide X-ray radiation with high energy stability and resolution. The experimental setup is optimized towards offering a wide range of methods and sample environments. Two permanent endstations can be used in alternation. DIFFRACTION is a flexible multi-purpose diffractometer, based on a Huber six circle diffractometer in psi geometry. XANES provides the possibility for EXAFS, XANES and X-ray fluorescence measurements at-air.

The Macromolecular Crystallography (MX) group at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) is operating three state-of-the-art synchrotron beamlines for MX at BESSY II in Berlin (Heinemann et al., 2003; Mueller et al., 2012, 2015). The radiation source for all three beamlines BL14.1-3 is a superconducting 7T-wavelength shifter. Currently, the three beam lines are the most productive stations for MX in Germany, with about 250 PDB depositions per year and over 1500 PDB depositions in total (Status 10/2015). BL14.1 and BL14.2 are energy tuneable in the range 5.5-15.5 keV, while beam line BL14.3 is a fixed-energy side station operated at 13.8 keV. The HZB-MX beamlines are in regular user operation providing close to 200 beam days per year and about 600 user shifts to approximately 100 research groups across Europe. Additional user facilities include office space adjacent to the beam lines, a sample preparation laboratory, a biology laboratory (safety level 1) and high-end computing resources.