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R Tucoulou

Publications and source records attributed to R Tucoulou.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

Two-dimensional hard x-ray beam compression by combined focusing and waveguide optics.

A two-dimensionally confining x-ray channel waveguide structure is combined with a high gain Kirkpatrick-Baez prefocusing mirror system yielding a hard x-ray beam with a cross section of 25 x 47 nm(2) (FWHM). Unlike the previously employed resonant beam coupling scheme, the incoming beam is coupled in from the front side of the waveguide and the waveguided beam is no longer accompanied by spurious reflected or transmitted beams. The field distribution in the waveguide channel has been calculated numerically. The calculated transmission and far-field intensity pattern are in good agreement with the experimental results.

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ID22: a multitechnique hard X-ray microprobe beamline at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility.

The ID22 beamline is dedicated to hard X-ray microanalysis allowing the combination of fluorescence, spectroscopy, diffraction and tomography techniques in a wide energy range from 6 to 70 keV. The recent installation of an in-vacuum undulator, a new sample stage and the adaptation of various focusing optics has contributed to a great improvement in the capabilities of the beamline, which is now accessed by a wide user community issued from medical, earth and environmental science, archaeology and material science. Many applications requiring low detection limits for localization/speciation of trace elements together with structural analysis have been developed at the beamline on the (sub)micrometer scale. The possibility of combining simultaneously different analytical probes offers the opportunity of a thorough study of a given sample or scientific problem. This paper presents a review of the recent developments of the beamline and a detailed description of its capabilities through examples from different fields of applications.

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Sagittal focusing of synchrotron radiation diffracted on the walls of a longitudinal hole drilled into a single-crystal monochromator.

A very simple method of sagittal focusing of X-ray synchrotron radiation is presented. A special ray-tracing program which utilizes the diffraction-refraction effect is developed. It is demonstrated both by ray-tracing simulations and by an experiment whereby a reasonably good sagittal concentration of 8 keV synchrotron radiation may be achieved by diffraction on the walls of a cylindrical hole drilled into an Si crystal. The holes were drilled parallel to the (111) planes and their diameter, 1 mm, was chosen so that the focusing distance fits the geometrical arrangement of beamline BM5 at the ESRF. Two such crystals have been used in a dispersive and non-dispersive arrangement. The better result was achieved using the dispersive arrangement. The intensity at the centre of the focus is increased by five times with respect to unfocused radiation. Excellent agreement exists between the ray-tracing simulations and experimental results.

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Storage of X-ray photons in a crystal resonator

The temporal structure and high brilliance of the X-ray beams produced by third-generation synchrotrons open up new possibilities in time-dependent diffraction and spectroscopy, where timescales down to the sub-nanosecond regime can now be accessed. These beam properties are such that one can envisage the development of the X-ray equivalent of optical components, such as photon delay lines and resonators, that have proved indispensable in a wide range of experiments--for example, pump-probe and multiple-interaction experiments--and (through shaping the temporal structure and repetition rate of the beams) time-dependent measurements in crystallography, physics, biology and chemistry. Optical resonators, such as those used in lasers, are available at wavelengths from the visible to soft X-rays. Equivalent components for hard X-rays have been discussed for more than thirty years, but have yet to be realized. Here we report the storage of hard X-ray photons (energy 15.817 keV) in a crystal resonator formed by two plates of crystalline silicon. The photons are stored for as many as 14 back-and-forth cycles within the resonator, each cycle separated by one nanosecond.

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High-frequency X-ray beam chopper based on diffraction by surface acoustic waves.

The diffraction of an X-ray beam on an ultrasonic wave propagating at the surface of a crystal gives rise to diffraction satellites whose temporal structure is correlated to that of the ultrasonic wave. By matching the temporal structure of the surface acoustic wave with the filling mode of the storage ring, it is possible to select or reject the incident X-ray pulses. A few examples of the performance of this MHz-range chopper for various filling modes are presented.

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