SIMPLE GLASS-CAPILLARY CONVERTERS OF SOFT X-RAYS

Theoretical and experimental investigations were made of the propertie s of simple glass-capillary converters (GCCs), which can be used to tr ansport soft x-ray (SXR) beams and alter their cross sections. The con ditions during propagation of SXR beams in a capillary were considered for an arbitrary position of a compact source, relative to the positi on of the entry face of the capillary. The characteristics of transpor t of SXR beams in a close-packed capillary bundle were also studied. A n experimental investigation was made of the dependences of the GCC ef ficiency and transmission, and also of the SXR beam divergence at the exit from GCCs of different types, on the wavelength and on the distan ce from the source to the entry face of a GCC. A reasonable agreement between the calculated and experimental data was achieved. It was foun d experimentally that a pinhole camera with a GCC could be used in pin hole photography of dense hot plasmas. This method can deliver plasma images without the distorting influence of hard xrays emitted by a pla sma. Simple and inexpensive bundle GCCs are suitable in those cases wh en the use of multilayer x-ray mirrors of zone plates is undesirable.