High-flux beamline for ultraviolet and vacuum-ultraviolet circular dichroism at NSRL

This paper describes the commissioning and characterization of an NSRL bending magnet beamline constructed for the measurement of vacuum-ultraviolet circular dichroism on biological and other materials. The beamline provides high fluxes of ultraviolet and vacuum-ultraviolet radiation, which is converted into plane polarized light using a polarizer and subsequently converted into circularly polarized light using a photoelastic modulator with a switching frequency of 50 kHz. The beamline has the best wavelength resolution of 0.3 run and stray light levels better than 0.03%. Example spectra of (1s)-(+)-10-camphorsulphonic acid (CSA) and myoglobin are given.