  A cryo scanning transmission X-ray microscope, the cryo-STXM, has been
designed and commissioned at the Canadian Light Source synchrotron. The
instrument is designed to operate from 100 - 4000 eV (lambda = 12.4 - 0.31 nm).
Users can insert a previously frozen sample, through a load lock, and rotate it
plus minus 70 degrees in the beam to collect tomographic data sets. The sample
can be maintained for extended periods at 92 K primarily to suppress radiation
damage, and a pressure on the order of 10-9 Torr to suppress sample
contamination. The achieved spatial resolution (30 nm) and spectral resolution
(0.1 eV) are similar to other current soft X-ray STXMs, as demonstrated by
measurements on known samples and test patterns. The data acquisition
efficiency is significantly more favorable for both imaging and tomography. 2D
images, 3D tomograms and 4D chemical maps of automotive hydrogen fuel cell thin
sections are presented to demonstrate current performance and new capabilities,
namely cryo-spectrotomography in the soft X-ray region.
