Nested Kirkpatrick–Baez (Montel) optics for hard X-rays

Abstract

A comprehensive description and ray-tracing simulations are presented for symmetric nested Kirkpatrick-Baez (KB) mirrors, commonly used at synchrotrons and in commercial X-ray sources. This paper introduces an analytical procedure for determining the proper orientation between the two surfaces composing the nested KB optics. This procedure has been used to design and simulate collimating optics for a hard-X-ray inverse Compton scattering source. The resulting optical device is composed of two 12 cm-long parabolic surfaces coated with a laterally graded multilayer and is capable of collimating a 12 keV beam with a divergence of 5 mrad (FWHM) by a factor of ~250. A description of the ray-tracing software that was developed to simulate the graded multilayer mirrors is included.