High transmission Ni compound refractive lens for high energy X-rays

Area of Science:

• Optics and X-ray instrumentation
• Materials science for advanced optics

Background:

• Compound refractive lenses (CRLs) are crucial for focusing high-energy X-rays.
• Previous CRL designs faced limitations in transmission and achievable focal lengths.
• High-energy X-ray applications demand efficient and compact focusing optics.

Purpose of the Study:

• To design and fabricate a novel planar nickel compound refractive lens for 116 keV X-rays.
• To enhance X-ray transmission by minimizing lens thickness and radius of curvature.
• To evaluate the focusing performance and identify limitations of the new lens design.

Main Methods:

• Manufacturing of plano-concave lens elements with longitudinal parabolic grooves using a punch technique.
• Reduction of the parabolic groove vertex thickness to < 5 μm and radius of curvature to ~20 μm.
• Assembly of 54 single lens elements to achieve a 3 m focal length.

Main Results:

• Successfully fabricated a planar nickel compound refractive lens for high-energy X-rays (116 keV).
• Achieved significantly improved gain parameter due to enhanced transmission from reduced thickness and curvature.
• Observed limitations in focused beam size and gain attributed to aberrations from lens shape imperfections.

Conclusions:

• The developed planar nickel compound refractive lens demonstrates improved transmission for high-energy X-rays.
• Lens shape imperfections introduce aberrations that impact focusing performance.
• Further optimization of manufacturing techniques is necessary to mitigate aberrations and improve beam quality.