A novel crystal bender for x-ray synchrotron radiation monochromators

A new bending mechanism for an indirectly water cooled monochromator crystal has been developed. The main design goals were a lightweight construction, ease of manufacture, and control. The construction consists of a U-shaped first Si(111) crystal, which can be bent by compressed air to compensate the bowing induced by the heat load from the impinging white synchrotron radiation. The performance of the system was tested at the x-ray undulator beamline BW1 at HASYLAB (Hamburg, Germany). For heat loads between ∼100 and 400 W, rebending of the crystal significantly increases the intensity of the monochromatic beam while the rocking curve is narrowed accordingly, typical widths obtained at 8.9 keV photon energy amount to about 10 arc sec.