The influence of metallic brazing materials on the strain formation of internally water-cooled X-ray optics.

A study of metallic brazing material for internally cooled optics is presented. The study shows the influence of the different material properties on the final quality of the bond in terms of diffracted wavefront distortion, i.e. enlargement of the rocking curve. By choosing the proper brazing material and applying the proper brazing conditions, the influence of the brazing material can be fully eliminated. Furthermore the degradation of some brazing material due to the extreme working conditions of the optics is presented. Measurement results from ESRF and KEK confirm the importance of the proper brazing material choice.

A proof-of-principle experiment of a novel harmonics separation optics for synchrotron facilities.

A proof-of-principle experiment of a novel harmonics separation optics for synchrotron facilities is presented. The harmonic separator is a Si crystal cut in an inclined geometry in which the impinging beam undergoes a diffractive-refractive effect owing to the dispersive nature of X-ray refraction. A polychromatic beam containing higher-order energies is spatially separated behind the separator into individual monochromatic diffraction spots. A synchrotron experiment at a bending-magnet beamline with 7 keV fundamental energy is presented. The spot of the third-order harmonic of 21 keV is deviated from the fundamental by 0.35 mm at a distance 1 m behind the device.

Investigation of multilayer X-ray optics for the 6 keV to 20 keV energy range.

The X-ray optics group at the Swiss Light Source in co-operation with RIT (Rigaku Innovative Technologies) have investigated seven different multilayer samples. The goal was to find an ideal multilayer structure for the energy range between 6 keV and 20 keV in terms of energy resolution and reflectivity. Such multilayer structures deposited on substrates can be used as X-ray monochromators or reflecting synchrotron mirrors. The measured reflectivities agree with the simulated ones. They cover a reflectivity range from 45% to 80% for energies between 6 keV and 10 keV, and 80% to 90% for energies between 10 keV and 20 keV. The experimentally measured energy resolution of the samples lies between 0.3% and 3.5%.

Diffractive-refractive optics: low-aberration Bragg-case focusing by precise parabolic surfaces.

Based on analytical formulae calculations and ray-tracing simulations a low-aberration focal spot with a high demagnification ratio was predicted for a diffractive-refractive crystal optics device with parabolic surfaces. Two Si(111) crystals with two precise parabolic-shaped grooves have been prepared and arranged in a dispersive position (+,-,-,+) with high asymmetry. Experimental testing of the device at beamline BM05 at the ESRF provided a focal spot size of 38.25 microm at a focal distance of 1.4 m for 7.31 keV. This is the first experiment with a parabolic-shaped groove; all previous experiments were performed with circular grooves which introduced extreme aberration broadening of the focal spot. The calculated and simulated focal size was 10.8 microm at a distance of 1.1 m at 7.31 keV. It is assumed that the difference between the measured and calculated/simulated focal spot size and focal distance is due to insufficient surface quality and to alignment imperfection.

Study of micro-channel geometries for internally cooled Si monochromators.

Rocking curves of micro-channel (MC) water-cooled monochromators are broadened by stresses introduced during fabrication and under X-ray thermal load. This is a problem which will be even more serious with the rise of the fourth-generation synchrotron sources, i.e. the free-electron lasers. The X-ray optics group at the Institute of Physics at the ASCR v.v.i. in Prague is designing, testing and, with company Polovodice a.s., fabricating novel internally water-cooled Si monochromators. Here three new micro-channel geometries are introduced which reduce rocking-curve enlargement owing to the fabrication to less than 2.5 microrad ( approximately 0.5 arcsec). All three MC designs show less rocking-curve enlargement and smoother topographic images. The designs also show better cooling efficiencies than the classical MC design in finite-element analysis calculations.

Internally cooled V-shape inclined monochromator.

A simple variant of a Si internally cooled inclined X-ray monochromator of reasonable size is proposed. It has two inclined surfaces oriented into a V shape. This design substantially decreases the surface deformations introduced by radiation heat, and the size of the crystal is still feasible for a 50 mm broad impinging bending magnet or wiggler beam. The possibility of sagittal focusing of the diffracted beam is also discussed.

Diffractive-refractive optics in the Laue case: first experiment.

The possibility of sagittally focusing synchrotron radiation using an asymmetric Laue crystal with profiled surfaces has been experimentally demonstrated for the first time. The sample was a Si single crystal with two parallel cylindrical holes of diameter 8 mm. The axes of the holes formed an angle of 7.95 degrees with the (111) diffracting planes and were arranged vertically with respect to the diffracting planes. 15.35 keV synchrotron radiation was diffracted in the space between the holes. The minimum thickness of this Laue crystal was 0.5 mm. The diffracted beam formed an angle of 0.55 degrees with the exit surface. The experiment was performed at beamline BM05 at the ESRF. The length of the beamline was not sufficiently long to detect the focus, but the experiment clearly showed that the diffracted beam was sagittally convergent.