While the project has clear objectives, as listed below, it will also act as a vehicle for serendipitous development, attracting further resources, e.g., research studentships, to pursue additional applications. The outcomes of the research will feed into training programmes at PhD and Masters level, including the EPSRC funded MRes in Image and X-ray Physics at King’s College London and similar courses throughout Europe.

· To demonstrate diffraction limited X-ray optics in large (centimetre) scale optics.

 

Objectives

· To develop new types of X-ray focusing optics and a versatile tabletop X-ray source that together will generate micrometre beams of X-rays. Such a system will be used to irradiate precisely parts of living cells, tissues and indeed living organisms. This, a highly sought-after technique in radiation biology, also has potential applications in microelectronic manufacturing.

· To develop a prototype X-ray telescope with sub arc second resolution and potentially large filling factor whose optical form is actively controllable.

3D model of micro-focus source

Last Updated 10th October 2007