ANL, Argonne, Illinois, USA
University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, USA
A prototype of compact x-ray compound refractive lens (CRL) manipulator system has been developed at the Argonne National Laboratory for dark-field imaging of multi-scale structures. This novel full-field imaging modality uses Bragg peaks to reconstruct 3D distribution of mesoscopic and microscopic structures that govern the behavior of functional materials, in particular, thermodynamic phase transitions in magnetic systems. At the heart of this microscopy technique is a CRL-based x-ray objective lens* with an easily adjustable focal length to isolate any region of interest, typically in the energy range of 5-100 keV or higher, with high precision positional and angular reproducibility. Since the x-ray CRL manipulator system for this technique will be implemented on a high-resolution diffractometer detector arm that rotates during diffraction studies, compactness and system stability, along with the ability to change focal length (zooming), became key design requirements for this new CRL manipulator system. The mechanical design of the compact x-ray CRL manipulator system, as well as finite element analyses for its precision alignment apparatus are described in this paper.
* http://www.rxoptics.de/intro.html
