Using toroidally shaped crystals is more practical now than ever, thanks to the high quality of synthetic crystals and state-of-the-art optical manufacturing and testing methods. For years, curved x-ray crystal optics have been used to analyze x-ray emissions in applications like analytical chemistry micro-probes and plasma diagnostics. When specifying your x-ray optical assembly in these and other applications, consider the following:
Crystal Selection
High quality crystals are grown from silicon, germanium and quartz. By changing the crystal’s orientation or diffraction order, you can attain a range of 2d spacings. Crystal spacings can be found to fit any application.
Optical Fabrication
The crystals, typically thinned to 100 μm, become flexible and can conform to the curvature of a backing support. The focusing ability of curved surfaces can be measured through an interferometric setup. Under these test conditions, the toroidal optic images visible light.
Crystal Performance
Using a Ge(400) toroid to image x-rays from an ultrafast laser pulse yields a focal spot less than 100 microns in diameter. When measured, the intensity of the x-ray across the toroid is uniform. Inrad manufactures custom toroidal and spherical x-ray crystals according to customer specifications. To learn more, download the latest white paper.
