X-Ray “knife” as a submicrometer tool for studying focusing lens quality

A mobile x-ray “knife” developed by the authors is described. The device is intended for determining the profile of the spatial intensity distribution in the ionizing radiation beam. Its automated motion system combines two actuator types. Significant displacements are performed using a goniometric module with a piezoelectric actuator. The angular step of this module is 1 arc second, which corresponds to a linear displacement of 0.97 μm. As a “fine” drive, a rotating module with a piezoelectric column is used. Its linear step can be varied from 0.01 to 1 μm at a total number of steps of 1000. The x-ray knife was experimentally tested at the Kurchatov Center of Synchrotron Radiation for diagnostics of the parameters of a short-focus x-ray lens at a photon energy of 18 keV. In the vertical direction, the width of the profile for the intensity distribution in the beam formed by the lens was 2.4 μm.