On the use of polycapillary structures to improve laboratory Energy-Dispersive X-ray Diffractometry and Reflectometry

One of the major limits of the laboratory X-ray sources is represented by their low photon flux which induces many researchers to move to synchrotron beamlines. From this point of view, polycapillaries lenses represent an extraordinary tool to improve the performances of laboratory machine and, indeed, several models of polycapillary optics-based instruments, such as diffractometers, spectrometers etc., are currently available on the market. In this work, the application of polycapillary optics to a particular kind of non-commercial X-ray instruments, namely the Energy-Dispersive X-ray Diffractometers and Reflectometers, is proposed. The advantages and limits of the use of polycapillaries are discussed and the results of preliminary experiments are shown.