Patent attributes
Systems for x-ray diffraction/scattering measurements having greater x-ray flux and x-ray flux density are disclosed. These are useful for applications such as material structural analysis and crystallography. The higher flux is achieved by using designs for x-ray targets comprising a number of microstructures of one or more selected x-ray generating materials fabricated in close thermal contact with a substrate having high thermal conductivity. This allows for bombardment of the targets with higher electron density or higher energy electrons, which leads to greater x-ray flux. The high brightness/high flux source may then be coupled to an x-ray reflecting optical system, which can focus the high flux x-rays to a spots that can be as small as one micron, leading to high flux density, and used to illuminate materials for the analysis based on their scattering/diffractive effects.
