Fine tune your focus with Alcorix sawtooth focusing devices

Sawtooth devices are a type of compound refractive lens that are particularly useful for focusing high energy X-rays. Alcorix offers several products in standard configurations that can produce down to sub-micrometer focal waist.

Sawtooth devices are refractive optics that are used to focus high energy X-rays, commonly in the 50-100 keV range. Alcorix’s sawtooth devices are made from single-crystal silicon and achieve sub-micrometer focal spots for most configurations. Standard products come either as 60 or 90 mm length, 10 mm width, and tooth height of 100, 150, or 200 micrometers. Alcorix’s sawtooth devices were tested at 70 keV on a synchrotron beam line and showed 0.8 um linear focusing capability.

Advantages of sawtooth refractive lenses are that they have an effectively parabolic thickness profile, with a high transmission (practically 100%) at the optical axis and a continuous tunability in photon energy and focal length*. Please see calculations below for focal distances for various experimental conditions and product attributes.

We refer the interested readers to our recent publication [S. D. Shastri and N. Moldovan, “Submicron focusing of high-energy X-rays with silicon saw-tooth refractive lenses: fabrication and aberrations,” Opt. Express 28, 36505-36515 (2020)], which elaborates on numerous advantages of saw tooth focusing devices, their aberrations and methods to correct them.

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