National Synchrotron Light Source Seminar

In the past two decades X-ray community witnessed an increase in the use of refractive optics. Following the demonstrations that allow refractive lenses to focus down to 1 micron spot size, a logical step is to explore the possibility of nanofocusing tests. The NSLS refractive optics program has explored two different materials (silicon and diamond), and I will show in this talk how nanofocusing can be performed at the spot size near 30 nm with Si lenses, and how diamond lenses can be further advanced to reach the same or better result.
In the second part of the talk, I will demonstrate a novel method of controlling the X-ray photons for the purpose of measuring the degree of synchrotron X-ray coherence, and for potential future interferometric applications. The method uses microfabricated bi-prism arrays that lead to X-ray interference in the mode of Young's double slit experiment and allows for easy measurements and applications in the Fresnel regime.
The talk will showcase various useful technical details, including a brief review of nanopatterning and etching solutions we developed, and the use of X-ray fluorescence in detection of nanoscale focal spot size, and in quantification of X-ray interference patterns. Lastly, some applications of our optics in various collaborative efforts will be shown.