There is a large performance gap between conventional, electron-impact X-ray sources and synchrotron radiation sources. Electron-impact X-ray sources are compact, low to moderate cost, widely available and can have high total flux, but have limited tunability (broad spectrum bremsstrahlung plus fixed characteristic lines) and low brightness. By contrast, synchrotron radiation sources provide extremely high brightness (coherent flux), are tunable and can be monochromatized to a very high degree. However, they are very large and expensive, and typically operated as national user facilities with limited access. An Inverse Compton Scattering (ICS) X-ray source can bridge this gap by providing a narrow-band, high flux and tunable X-ray source that fits into a laboratory at a cost of a few percent of a large synchrotron facility. It works by colliding a high-power laser beam with a relativistic electron beam, in which case the backscattered photons have an energy in the X-ray regime. This paper will describe the working principle of the Lyncean Compact Light Source, a storage-ring based ICS source, its unique beam properties and recent developments that are expected to increase flux and brightness by an order of magnitude compared to earlier versions. Furthermore, it will illustrate how such an X-ray source can be the cornerstone of a local X-ray facility serving applications from diffraction and imaging to scattering and spectroscopy. An overview of demonstrated and potential applications will be provided.
The ever-growing energy demand and recent discoveries of vast unconventional oil and gas reservoirs have brought significant attention to shale oil and gas resources as potential game-changers for the petroleum industry and energy markets worldwide. The complex structural features and mineralogy of shale has broad implications on the development of the unconventional oil and gas industry. Although shale reservoirs are large in scale and offer the potential for long-lived production, extremely low matrix porosity and permeability, as well as complex heterogeneity, pose major challenges in obtaining economically viable oil or gas. A lack of predictive understanding of microstructure-based heterogeneity in shale limits the effectiveness of currently used production technologies. Hence, addressing the challenges of shale oil and gas production requires an in-depth understanding of microstructural features that control the oil and gas storage, release, and transport mechanisms.Because anisotropy of shale exists across multiple scales, determining changes in pore distribution has proven to be difficult. Recent studies have indicated that shale pores significantly vary in number, size (from nano-to micro-pores), and classification (organic and nonorganic). Thus far, the role of pore network and, more specifically, what pores contribute the most to the gas and/or oil storage or to the production process, is not well understood and remains largely unknown. Hence, it is vital to determine how well different pores are connected and how they create possible flow pathways for hydrocarbon migration.Here we present a comprehensive digital rock physics (DRP) framework for pore network investigation in a Marcellus Shale rock matrix. Pore networks within both organic and nonorganic matter are reconstructed from focused ion beam scanning electron microscopy (FIB-SEM) images of the shale specimen. Through this process, the pore size distribution, porosity, pore connectivity, and mineralogyorganic-matter-hosted and nonorganic-matter-hosted pores -of the sample are obtained. The impact of obtained parameters on fluid flow in shale is analyzed.
There is a large performance gap between conventional, electron-impact X-ray sources and synchrotron radiation sources. An Inverse Compton Scattering (ICS) source can bridge this gap by providing a narrow-band, high-flux and tunable Xray source that fits into a laboratory. It works by colliding a high-power laser beam with a relativistic electron beam, in which case the energy of the backscattered photons is in the X-ray (or gamma-ray) regime. Here we present a new conceptual design for an ICS source that is more than two orders of magnitude brighter than the Lyncean Compact Light Source (CLS) currently in user operation. Depending on configuration, this next generation CLS covers an X-ray energy range of about 30-90 keV, or 60-180 keV. It will provide X-ray flux of up to 4 x 10 12 photons/s within a beam divergence of 4 mrad and a bandwidth of around 10%. This is well-suited for micro-CT imaging of millimeter-sized samples at micron resolution, with a flux density similar to some high-energy synchrotron beamlines. The beam properties of the new design are also compatible with narrower bandwidth, focused beam applications such as high-energy diffraction. We discuss the novel concepts applied to the design of this X-ray source as well as the resulting beam properties. We present application examples in the areas of imaging, diffraction, and radiotherapy where this system can approach or match the performance of synchrotron beamlines. This will allow transferring many research, industrial and medical applications from the synchrotron, where capacity and access are limited, to a local lab or clinic.
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