Lesson 5
⚫ Conditioning the x-ray beam
⚫ How do x-rays interact with matter
⚫ How does the periodic nature of crystals effect
this interaction
X-ray Tube Output
Line focus for powder diffraction
Point focus for single crystals
The 6º angle is called the take-off
Desired Properties of the Beam
⚫ Monochromatic
⚫ Parallel
⚫ Coherent
⚫ In phase
Monochromation
⚫ Simplest is β filter
⚫ Crystal monochromator
⚫ Can use a crystal to monochromate by
collecting some Bragg spot
⚫ Typically today use graphite (2-dimensional
crystal)
⚫ All methods involve considerable loss of
intensity
Making the Beam Parallel
⚫ Done using a collimator
⚫ This is a long, narrow tube which eliminates all
x-rays that are not travelling down the tube.
⚫ More loss of intensity
⚫ This results in a beam which has a region of
uniform intensity the size of the collimator
opening. However, there are x-rays that are
outside this sweet spot with lesser intensity
⚫ For light this could be done using lens.
Coherence
⚫ This means all the waves are in phase.
⚫ This cannot be achieved for electron beam
produced x-rays.
⚫ Therefore, there will be some interference
between waves.
⚫ Synchrotron is coherent, parallel and exactly
monochromatic!
Polarization
⚫ X-ray source is not polarized
⚫ For light a laser would have all the correct
properties.
⚫ No x-ray lasers.
⚫ The energy need to achieve lasing is inversely
related to the square of the frequency of
radiation to be produced.
⚫ Comparing green light (1/5000) vs x-ray (1/1) it
is 2.5x107 times more difficult.
Safety
⚫ Beam is very small
⚫ Hard to get body parts in the beam
⚫ Radiation is lower energy.
⚫ Many interlocks to prevent accidental exposure
⚫ Ba impregnated plexi-glass blocks radiation
⚫ Still—be sure you know what you are doing!!
Simplest Interaction of Radiation
with Matter (one photon).
⚫ Transmission—the radiation passes through the
material.
⚫ Absorption—the radiation is absorbed by the
material. The energy must be dissipated!
⚫ These processes are inverse –that is
probability(absorption)=1.-probability(trans)
⚫ Neither play any role in crystallography beyond
the fact that absorption is a nuisance that must
be corrected.
More complicated Interactions
⚫ In the 1890's J. J. Thompson worked out the
scattering of a electromagnetic radiation by a
free electron.
⚫ It is this process that is the source of the
photons in the x-ray diffraction experiment.
⚫ Note that scattered photons come off in all
directions and have a phase 180° to the
incident wave.
⚫ Assume elastic scattering—no change in
energy
An Experiment
J.J. Thompson Scattering
The amplitude of the scattered wave is about
2.82x10-13 times less than the incoming wave at
any point.
This is for elastic scattering where the frequency
of the scattered wave is the same as the
incoming wave
This is the scattering at a point for 1 electron.
There actually also needs a distance term r (the
units are cm) but we will assume we are 1 cm
from the scattered electron.
More on Scattering
Scattering where the plane of the scattered wave
is the same as the incident radiation has the
same probability regardless of the direction
⚫ Scattering out of the plane falls off by cos2(2θ)
Since any wave can be broken down into two
components (in the plane and out of the plane)
the fall off for an unpolarized beam is
(1+cos2(2θ))/2. This is the polarization factor.
Polarization
θ
Wave Interference
Slits as a Diffraction Substitute
⚫ When electromagnetic, coherent radiation
passes through a slit with a width about equal to
the wavelength the waves will be diffracted.
⚫ The waves will emerge along a circular wave
front.
⚫ Thus the slit will look like an emission source
⚫ NOTE: THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH
THE PROCESS OF SCATTERING OF THE X-
RAYS BUT IS SIMPLY A MODEL!
Some Comments
⚫ The pattern from one slit is a function of the slit
width and the wavelength of the radiation and is
represented by the intensity
⚫ The pattern from multiple slits is a series of
lines whose separation is a function of the
distance between the slits.
⚫ The transformational symmetry of the crystal
means that there are periodically placed atoms
just like the slits. They are separated by the
unit cell edges!
⚫ The information about the slit width is still there
and is contained in the intensities of the
individual lines
⚫ The distance between the diffracted lines and
the slits is reciprocal. The greater the distance
between the slits the closer the lines of light are.
⚫ Since for a huge number of slits this involves
adding up waves this is best thought of as a
Fourier transformation.
The Take Home Message
⚫ The electrons scatter the x-ray radiation. Each
atom scatters proportional to its atomic number
⚫ The scattered waves interfere with each other
because of the periodic nature of the crystal.
⚫ The distance between the spots is inversely
related to the repeat distance.
⚫ The pattern of the individual scatterers is
contained in the intensity of each spot.
⚫ By applying a Fourier series the intensity can be
converted to the scattering arrangement.