On the Surface Structure of Microchannel Plates and the Excitation of X-Ray Fluorescence in Hollow Microcapillaries

Abstract

Microchannel plate surfaces are studied by means of a laboratory spectrometer for fluorescence analysis and a synchrotron radiation source. Methods of mathematical statistics make it possible to estimate the degree of homogeneity and compare the chemical composition of the surfaces of different microchannel-plate samples. The conditions are determined, under which a synchrotron radiation beam excites X-ray fluorescence that propagates in the hollow microchannels. The X-ray diffraction and spatial distribution of fluorescence at the exit of the microchannel plates for an energy corresponding to the region of anomalous dispersion near the SiL_2,3 absorption edges are studied experimentally and theoretically. In the long-wavelength X-ray radiation range, the relationship between the elemental composition of the microchannel-plate surfaces and the angular distribution of synchrotron radiation transmitted through microcapillaries is studied.