Innovations in x-ray laboratory instrumentation toward synchrotron-like capabilities

Session

PST.3 - New Instrumentation

Authors

Sylvia Lewis (1), Dr. Wenbing Yun (1), Dr. David Vine (1), Dr. Srivatsan Seshadri (1), Dr. Benjamin Stripe (1), SH Lau (1), Jeff Gelb (1)

Affiliations

1. Sigray, Inc.

Keywords

x-ray microscopy

x-ray absorption spectroscopy

micro x-ray fluorescence

microCT

nanoCT

Abstract text

X-ray synchrotron techniques have enabled breakthrough research in a variety of fields that span from advanced materials to biomedical science. These techniques include XAS which provides powerful access to electronic structure, micro/nanoXRF for chemical composition down to ultra-trace levels, and x-ray microscopy. As a result, time at synchrotron beamlines have become increasingly difficult to obtain, with many synchrotron beamlines 2-4X oversubscribed. 

Development of laboratory-based systems with capabilities comparable to synchrotron performance is not trivial, however. The well-known bottleneck on these systems is on the illumination side, which for many microanalytical techniques comprise the x-ray source and x-ray optics. We have developed several patented innovations with novel ultra-high brightness x-ray source designs and high efficiency laboratory x-ray focusing mirror lenses for this purpose. The x-ray source employs a target design in which microstructured metals are embedded in a diamond substrate, which due to the superior thermal conductivity of diamond (e.g. over 10X that of tungsten at room temperatures), provides rapid heat dissipation and is further optimized due to the maximized surface contact with the microstructured metal. Furthermore, a twin paraboloidal design of x-ray mirror lens with double the numerical aperture of single-bounce (e.g. ellipsoidal) x-ray optics provides four times higher flux output and minimal slope errors for optimized brightness preservation, in addition to numerous advantages such as achromaticity (lack of chromatic aberrations of other x-ray focusing schemes) and large working distances.

In this presentation, we will briefly review the current status of the x-ray source and x-ray optical system developments. We will then detail the exciting range of systems that these components have enabled, including: an x-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) system that provides both transmission and fluorescence mode XAS capabilities within the laboratory; a microXRF system that reaches down to microns-scale resolution and parts-per-million sensitivity; a multi-contrast x-ray microscope; and a nano-scale x-ray microscope that achieves 30nm spatial resolution.