An impurity-doped crystal plate as an X-ray monochromator

To increase the integrated reflexion intensity of a monochromating crystal, the strain distributed due to impurity introduction can be utilized and, compared with conventional mechanical processing, can be a more controllable method. From this viewpoint, numerical computations on the dynamical diffraction theory for distorted crystals have been performed for the 220 reflexion of Cu Kα X-rays by Si crystals with several different strain distributions; the one changing linearly with depth from −10⁻³ at the surface to zero at 28 μm depth gives the maximum integrated intensity within the restriction that the full width of the intensity profile is 100′′. The integrated intensity in this case is 5.3 and 4.5 times as strong as that of a perfect crystal plate for σ and π polarizations respectively. It is more enhanced for shorter wavelengths, e.g. nine times for Mo Kα. In addition, that intensity profiles for distributed strains are cut sharply at both ends is certainly favourable for the purpose of monochromating white X-rays. A preliminary experiment with an intentionally processed sample showed a fourfold intensity increase for a σ-polarized Cu Kα line with a full width of 80′′.