X-ray focusing based on Bragg reflection at curved crystals allows collection of a large solid angle of incident radiation, monochromatization of this radiation, and condensation of the beam reflected at the crystal into a small spatial cross-section in a pre-selected focal plane. Thus, for the Bragg reflected radiation, one can achieve higher intensities than for the radiation passing directly to the same small area in the focal plane. In that case one can profit considerably from X-ray focusing in an EDXRF arrangement. The 00 2 reflection at Highly Oriented Pyrolytic Graphite (HOPG) crystals offers a very high intensity of the Bragg reflected beam for a wide range of photon energies. Furthermore, curvature radii smaller than 10 mm can be achieved for HOPG crystals ensuring efficient X-ray focusing in EDXRF applications. For the trace analysis of very small amounts of specimen material deposited on small areas of thin-filter backings, HOPG based X-ray focusing may be used to achieve a very high intensity of monochromatic excitation radiation.
Constraints on photon pulse duration from longitudinal electron beam diagnostics at a soft x-ray free-electron laser