Versatile high resolution crystal spectrometer with x-ray charge coupled device detector

A family of Johann configuration curved crystal spectrometers has been designed to share the basic engineering features of compactness, modularity, facility of alignment and focus, and incorporation of solid-state charge coupled device detector arrays. These detectors have intrinsically low noise, useful energy resolution, two-dimensional position sensitivity, and readout modes that are programmable. The spectrometers, although relatively compact, with a Rowland circle diameter in the range 0.5-2 m, can still have sufficient resolving power, dispersion, and throughput to be invaluable in high resolution studies of atomic and plasma sources. This article discusses the basic design features and performance of these doubly dispersive spectrometers and illustrates their versatility by applications to studies of a wide range of laboratory x-ray sources such as line emission from highly ionized atoms in the extended plasmas of Tokamaks and nearly point plasmas produced by focused laser irradiation of solids and in beam-foil experiments and electron beam ion traps. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.