Synchrotrons and synchrotron beamlines exist to provide user communities with a variety of techniques to allow experiments that would not be possible using conventional radiation sources. As storage rings are optimised for producing x-rays, infrared beamlines are relatively rare, although they significantly outperform laboratory based instruments. The SMIS beamline at the SOLEIL synchrotron provides cutting-edge capabilities in mid and far-infrared spectromicroscopy; our instrumentation is able to achieve spatial resolution as fine as 20 nm and accommodate scan sizes up to several centimeters.

In this presentation I will showcase the beamline instrumentation, and highlight related user experiments, from physics and optics through material science. I will discuss environmental conditions supported by the beamline—including controlled pressure, temperature, atmosphere, and polarization—that strongly contribute to experimental versatility and thus the scientific output of SMIS. By discussing recent advancements in both near- and far-field infrared microscopy techniques, we will explore their implications for sub-micron and sub-diffraction limit experiments.