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High intensity laser driven proton beams are at present receiving much attention. The reasons for this are many but high on the list is the potential to produce compact accelerators. However two of the limitations of this technology is that unlike conventional nuclear RF accelerators lasers produce diverging beams with an exponential energy distribution. A number of different approaches have been attempted to monochromise these beams but it has become obvious that magnetic spectrometer technology developed over many years by nuclear physicists to transport and focus proton beams could play an important role for this purpose. This paper deals with the design and characterisation of a magnetic quadrupole system which will attempt to focus and transport laser-accelerated proton beams.

A new cluster tool for in situ real-time processing and depth-resolved compositional, structural and optical characterization of thin films at temperatures from -100 to 800 °C is described. The implemented techniques comprise magnetron sputtering, ion irradiation, Rutherford backscattering spectrometry, Raman spectroscopy, and spectroscopic ellipsometry. The capability of the cluster tool is demonstrated for a layer stack MgO/amorphous Si (∼60 nm)/Ag (∼30 nm), deposited at room temperature and crystallized with partial layer exchange by heating up to 650 °C. Its initial and final composition, stacking order, and structure were monitored in situ in real time and a reaction progress was defined as a function of time and temperature.

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The combination of a pn‐junction charge‐coupled device‐based pixel detector with a poly‐capillary X‐ray optics was installed and examined at the Helmholtz‐Zentrum Dresden‐Rossendorf. The set‐up is intended for particle‐induced X‐ray emission imaging to survey the trace elemental composition of flat/polished geological samples. In the standard configuration, a straight X‐ray optics (20 μm capillary diameter) is used to guide the emitted photons from the sample towards the detector with nearly 70 000 pixels. Their dimensions of 48 × 48 μm2 are the main limitation of the lateral resolution. This limitation can be bypassed by applying a dedicated subpixel algorithm to recalculate the footprint of the photon's electron cloud in the detector. The lateral resolution is then mainly determined by the capillary's diameter. Nevertheless, images are still superimposed by the X‐ray optics pattern. The optics' capillaries are grouped in hexagonal bundles resulting in a reduced transmission of X‐rays in the boundary regions. This influence can be largely suppressed by combining a series of short measurements at slightly shifted positions using a precision stage and correcting the image data for this shifting. The use of a subpixel grid for the image reconstruction allows a further increase of the spatial resolution. This approach of image‐stacking and multiframe super‐resolution in combination with the subpixel correction algorithm is presented and illustrated with experimental data. Additionally, a flat‐field correction is shown to remove the remaining imaging inhomogeneity caused by non‐uniform X‐ray transmission. The described techniques can be used for all X‐ray spectrometry methods using an X‐ray camera to obtain high‐quality elemental images.

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