A vacuum ultraviolet filtering monochromator for synchrotron-based spectroscopy

We describe the design, characterization, and implementation of a vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) monochromator for use in filtering stray and scattered light from the principal monochromator output of the Stainless Steel Seya VUV synchrotron beam line at the Synchrotron Radiation Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison. We demonstrate a reduction of three orders of magnitude of stray and scattered light over the wavelength range 1400-2000 Å with minimal loss of light intensity, allowing for over six orders of magnitude of dynamic range in light detection. We suggest that a similar filtering scheme can be utilized in any variety of spectroscopic applications where a large dynamic range and low amount of background signal are of import, such as in transmittance experiments with very high optical density.