Plasma Laboratory - Weizmann Institute of Science

Z-pinch x-ray spectroscopy setup

A singly-curved crystal can be used in order to enhance spectroscopic parameters such as the resolving power or linear dispersion. Using such crystal combined with an imaging slit allows one to obtain, for example, the spectrum of a Z-pinch x-ray source, imaged along the z axis, as seen in Fig 2.

Fig. 2. - Singly-curved KAP spectrometer. The slit enables delicate imaging of the plasma column.

Using doubly-curved crystal spectrometers enables high resolution measurements of the spectra emitted by the plasma to be performed. These instruments combine very high light collection efficiency (speed) with high spatial resolution, while preserving the highest possible spectral resolution of their dispersive elements. By using focusing spectrographs in which spherically or toroidally curved crystals are used as dispersive elements, we can greatly increase the instrument speed over that attainable with cylindrical crystals resulting from the focusing of the x-ray in the plane perpendicular to the dispersion.

Fig. 3 - Doubly-curved spectrometer, enabling high resolution (temporal, spatial and spectral)
spectrum to be obtained.

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Modified on: 2010-05-23

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