On the formation of X-ray microbeams utilizing a short-focus refractive lens and a laboratory radiation source

The possibility of focusing an X-ray beam from a laboratory radiation source using a short-focus refractive composite lens is shown. The lens consists of 161 spherical biconcave epoxy lenses, each with a curvature radius of 50 μm. A Metal Jet (Excillium TM ) microfocus X-ray tube, with a focal-spot size of 20 μm and containing a liquid helium anode, is used as a radiation source. The size of the focal spot in the image plane is 2.4 μm, which corresponds to the theoretical estimate. The possibility of using the composite refractive lens to form a parallel polychromatic X-ray beam is demonstrated. The results obtained allow discussion of the possibility of applying short-focus refractive X-ray lenses for X-ray microanalysis using laboratory sources; such microanalysis is currently a prerogative of synchrotron radiation sources only.