X-ray emission analysis of a plasma source using an yttrium and a mylar target for the generation of 2.48 nm wavelength microbeam

In this work, the characteristics of X-ray beam generated from a plasma produced by focusing a Nd- Yag/glass laser beam on mylar or yttrium target were presented. For each target material, the conversion efficiencies of the soft X-ray emission in two different energy ranges, (i) 300–510 eV (almost coincident with the Water Window), (ii) 450–850 eV were measured. The experimental results of the conversion efficiencies will be utilized at the PLASMA-X laboratory of L’Aquila University for the realization of an intense monochromatic X-ray microbeam to be used in radiobiological and in transmission X-ray microscopy applications. In the presented experimental set-up, at the wavelength of 2.48 nm, a monochromatic soft X-rays beam was collected by multilayer spherical mirrors reflecting at an incidence angle close to the normal of the surface. The optical system geometry, the monochromatic beam intensity and the measures of efficiency of conversion of X-ray were described in this paper.