A focusing monochromator for small-angle diffraction studies with synchrotron radiation

An X-ray focusing monochromator for small-angle diffraction studies was designed for use with the synchrotron radiation from the storage ring, SPEAR, at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. It incorporates a 7 cm long silicon crystal, cut at 8°30' to the (111) planes and bent to a logarithmic spiral curvature for horizontal focusing and monochromatization. A 120 cm long elliptically curved float-glass mirror is used for vertical focusing, and provides means of eliminating higher-order harmonics of smaller wavelength. With SPEAR operating at 3.7 GeV, 20 mA, the two elements produce a 0.5 × 0.5 mm focused beam with an intensity of 6 × 10⁸ photons s^-1. The diffraction pattern of frog sciatic nerve myelin obtained with this system was compared with that obtained with a 300 W conventional microfocus X-ray source and a toroidal camera. The new system shows a 190-fold gain in the integrated intensity on photographic film. Synchrotron radiation provides a broad X-ray spectrum. The monochromator is tunable to any wavelength between 0.5 and 3 Å, with a total wavelength spread in the focused beam of about 0.01 at 1.74 Å. The broad spectrum allows wavelength selection for anomalous-scattering experiments.