It's good to have questions, it's here you'll find answers
The system is designed to allow for very quick and easy setup. The setup of the mechanical parts can be done within half an hour, and the first picture can be taken as soon as the stepping motor is connected to a computer running the motor software.
Each Talint system is designed for specific x-ray energy. At design energy visibility is maximal, towards smaller and larger energies visibility will roll off slowly, even at 30% off there will be some visibility left.
There are no further requirement for source and detector. Here are some examples that were used with our Talint system:
1. Microfocus source and detector with 75 µm pixel size
2. Rotating anode source and detector with 300 µm pixel size for human lung diagnostics
3. Good visibility was reported for source sizes up to 400 µm
The resolution depends on the used source and detector (which Microworks does not supply). In general, it can be said that the Talint system does not decrease the resolution of the existing X-ray setup. In special cases, it may even increase the resolution.
In general, phase contrast is better at 21 keV since the refraction is stronger at lower energies. However, for highly absorbent samples, 40 keV may be a better option due to their higher transmission.
The gratings are manufactured with high precision using deep X-ray lithography and placed in precision holders, leading to very good initial alignment. We then do the necessary small corrections for the pre-alignment in an X-ray lab using a microfocus tube source and a detector with a 75 µm pixel size.
Samples with low absorption contrast but high refraction contrast or high scattering are of main interest for the Talint system.
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The lenses are made of SU-8 negative resist and are therefore very stable under X-ray exposure. Their radiation stability was also investigated in Nazmov (2004). Only some outgassing of small molecules takes place, modifying the focal length of a CRL in the range of one percent after several months of use at synchrotron beam lines [Krywka 2016].
The maximal possible aperture is restricted by two things: absorption and the length of the lens. Especially for low photon energies, the limiting factor is absorption, since the optical path within the lens increases quadratically with the aperture size. For higher energies, more lenses are needed to get the desired focal distance; this leads to longer lenses, which are restricted by the manufacturing process. The length of the lens also scales quadratically with the aperture.
If you want to know the possible apertures for your application, please contact us; we are happy to calculate them for you.
To calculate a suitable lens for you, we need the following parameters:
1. Photon energy
2. Source distance
3. Desired working distance
Optional: source size (vertical x horizontal); we can then calculate the focal spot size.
The lenses are made of polymer and are therefore amorphous and show very low scattering. Please also refer to Krywka (2016).
[Krywka2016] Krywka C, Last A, Marschall F, Márkus O,Georgi S, Müller M, and Mohr J. 2016 AIP Conf. Proc. 1764 020001
For the polymer lenses, no influence on the degree of polarization purity can be seen within the error margins. [Marx-Glowna2022] B Marx-Glowna et al 2022 New J. Phys. 24 053051