Synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction and absorption spectroscopy in pulsed magnetic fields with milliseconds duration.

X-ray Powder Diffraction and X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy experiments (WAS) and X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) experiments were carried out at the ESRF DUBBLE beam line (BM26) and at the energy dispersive beam line (ID24), respectively. A mobile pulse generator, developed at the LNCMP, delivered 110kJ to the load coil, which was sufficient to generate peak fields of 30T with a rise time of about 5 ms. A liquid He flow cryostat allowed us to vary the sample temperature accurately between 4.2K and 300K. Powder diffraction patterns of TbVO4 were recorded in a broad temperature range using 21 keV monochromatic X-rays and using an on-line image plate detector. We observed the suppression of the Jahn-Teller structural distortion in TbVO4 due to the high magnetic pulsed field. XAS spectra could be measured and finite XMCD signals, directly proportional to the magnetic moment on the Gd absorber atom, were measured in thin Gd foils. Thanks to its element and orbital selectivity, XMCD proofs to be very useful in probing the magnetic properties and due to the strong brilliance of the synchrotron beam, the signals can be measured even in the ms range.