title: Spherical quartz crystals investigated with synchrotron radiation.
abstract: The quality of x-ray spectra and images obtained from plasmas with spherically bent crystals depends in part on the crystal's x-ray diffraction across the entire crystal surface. We employ the energy selectivity and high intensity of synchrotron radiation to examine typical spherical crystals from alpha-quartz for their diffraction quality, in a perpendicular geometry that is particularly convenient to examine sagittal focusing. The crystal's local diffraction is not ideal: the most noticeable problems come from isolated regions that so far have failed to correlate with visible imperfections. Excluding diffraction from such problem spots has little effect on the focus beyond a decrease in background.
authors.affiliation: Ecopulse, Inc., 7844 Vervain Ct., Springfield, Virginia 22152, USA.
authors.forename: N R
authors.initials: NR
authors.lastname: Pereira
authors.affiliation: Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439, USA.
authors.forename: A T
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Macrander
authors.affiliation: Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, Princeton, New Jersey 08536, USA.
authors.forename: K W
authors.initials: KW
authors.lastname: Hill
authors.affiliation: Kurchatov Institute, Moscow, Russia.
authors.forename: E O
authors.initials: EO
authors.lastname: Baronova
authors.affiliation: The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210, USA.
authors.forename: K M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: George
authors.affiliation: The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210, USA.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kotick