A high‐fluence reflection‐refraction x‐ray spectrometer allows spectral diagnosis of intense bursts of x radiation from about 0.5 to 8 keV. Grazing‐incidence x rays, reflected first by a vitreous carbon mirror, are rereflected off the flat polished face of a plastic scintillator that is viewed by a photomultiplier tube. By making the scintillator‐mirror reflection angle greater than the carbon‐mirror angle, one efficiently refracts an energy band out of the incident spectrum into the scintillator. Reflection by the carbon mirror determines the high‐energy edge of the bin, whereas refraction into (or reflection from) the subsequent scintillator determines the lower edge. The current from the photomultiplier is a direct time‐dependent measure of the contents of the band. The sharpness of the band edges (about 0.1 keV) determines the narrowest measurable energy band and hence best possible energy resolution. The response to light of the scintillator‐photomultiplier limits the sensitivity. Measurements with continuum and monoenergetic sources are compared to theory.

1.
A. H. Compton and S. K. Allison, X‐Rays in Theory and Experiment (Van Nostrand, New York, 1935).
2.
H. K.
Herglotz
,
Nature
214
,
263
(
1967
).
Google Scholar
Crossref
Search ADS
 
3.
H. K.
Herglotz
,
J. Appl. Phys.
38
,
4565
(
1967
).
Google Scholar
Crossref
Search ADS
 
4.
E. A.
Stewardson
 and
J. H.
Underwood
,
Br. J. Appl. Phys.
16
,
1877
(
1965
).
Google Scholar
Crossref
Search ADS
 
5.
A. P.
Lukirskii
,
E. P.
Savinov
,
O. A.
Ershov
,
I. I.
Zhukova
, and
V. A.
Formichev
,
Opt. Spectrosc. (USSR)
19
,
237
(
1965
).
Google Scholar
 
6.
A. P.
Lukirskii
 and
Yu. A.
Omelchenko
,
Opt. Spectrosc. (USSR)
8
,
297
(
1960
).
Google Scholar
 
7.
As a separate but interesting point, these measurements constitute a very shallow probe, on the order of 10 nm deep (see Ref. 8) for dead‐layer effects into the surface layer of the scintillator material.
8.
L. G.
Parratt
,
Phys. Rev.
95
,
359
(
1954
).
Google Scholar
Crossref
Search ADS
 
9.
Mention of a company or product name does not imply approval or recommendation of the product by the University of California or the U. S. Energy Research and Development Administration to the exclusion of others that may be suitable.
10.
Supplied by Nuclear Enterprises, Inc.
11.
B. L.
Henke
 and
M. A.
Tester
,
Adv. X‐Ray Anal.
18
,
76
(
1975
).
Google Scholar
 
12.
Burton L.
Henke
,
Phys. Rev. A
6
,
94
(
1972
), and references therein.
Google Scholar
Crossref
Search ADS
 
This content is only available via PDF.
© 1978 American Institute of Physics.
1978
American Institute of Physics
You do not currently have access to this content.