Effects of beam divergence and polychromaticity on small angle x-ray scattering measurements with laser plasma sources

Abstract

We explore the feasibility of small angle x-ray scattering (SAXS) measurements with intense laser-induced plasma sources. Such x-ray sources are inherently polychromatic and divergent. We simulate SAXS patterns using monochromatic and polychromatic x-ray sources with different divergences of polydisperse particle systems with different size distributions. The beam divergence is adjusted via varying x-ray source size, pinhole size, and the source-to-pinhole distance. Three typical laser plasma He-α sources (Fe, Cu, and Ge) are considered. The scattering curves are analyzed using the modified Guinier approach and the total non-negative least squares method. We demonstrate certain feasibility of SAXS measurements using laser plasma sources with a finite size, without a monochromator and additional software desmearing.