The N-crystal spectrometer

It is shown that a recurrence relation exists such that the resolution function and luminosity of an optical system consisting of any number of alternate collimators and reflecting crystals can be calculated analytically. Certain cases of practical interest in neutron and X-ray diffraction are evaluated explicitly using a Gaussian approximation for the transmission functions of the collimators, and for the mosaic spread distributions or reflection profiles of the crystals. It is shown that true absorption has a negligible effect on luminosity when the Darwin width of a reflection is of the order of the opening angle of the X-ray beam from a synchrotron source.