A Simple X-Ray Focusing Mirror Using Float Glass

Abstract

In our recent x-ray photon correlation spectroscopy (speckle) experiments at NSLS, one of the challenges is to increase the coherent photon flux through a pinhole, whose size is chosen to match the beam`s horizontal transverse coherence length {ital l{sub h}}. We adopted an approach to vertically focus the x-ray beam so as to match its vertical transverse coherence length {ital l{sub v}}, (at NSLS X13, {ital l{sub v}}{approximately} 50{ital l{sub h}}, {ital l{sub h}}{approximately} 12 {mu}m at 3 KeV) with {ital l{sub h}}. By demagnifying the vertical size by a factor of {ital l{sub v}/l{sub h}}, we expect to increase the intensity of the x-rays through the pin hole by the same factor while keeping the beam coherent. A piece of commercial 3/8 inch thick float glass, by virtue of its low surface roughness ({approximately}3{Angstrom} rms), good reflectivity in the low photon energy range of interest and low cost, was chosen as the mirror material. A computer controlled motorized bender with a four point bending mechanism was designed and built to bend the float glass to a continuously variable radius of curvature from {approximately}700 m (intrinsic curvature of the glass surface) to < 300 m, measured with the Long Trace Profiler at the BNL Metrology Lab. This mirror bender assembly allows us to continuously change the focal length of the x-ray mirror down to 0.5 m under our experimental conditions. At the NSLS X13 Prototype Small Gap Undulator (PSGU) beamline, we were able to focus the x-ray beam from a vertical size of 0.5 mm to {approximately} 25{mu}m at the focal point 54 cm from the mirror center, thus increasing the photon flux density by a factor of 20. Results also show that, as expected, at an incident angle of 9 mrad, the mirror cuts off the harmonics of the undulator spectrum, leaving a clean 3 KeV fundamental for our experiments

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