Intensity measurements of a quasi-monochromatic X-ray beam formed by a spherically bent crystal

A quasi-monochromatic backlighting scheme for the diagnosis of laser-produced plasmas using spherically curved crystals to produce the monochromatic beam is proposed. Comparative flux measurements have been made of a variety of candidate backlighting materials using a spherically bent quartz [10 1 0] crystal as the monochromaticising component. It is demonstrated that very bright quasi-monochromatic beams can be obtained with this crystal in the narrow spectral range 8.43 Å ± 0.03 Å using L-shell emitters with z = 29–33 or M-shell emitters with z = 64–68.