In 1948, P. Kirkpatrick and A. V. Baez developed an x-ray microscope ͑energy range about 100 eV-10 keV͒ composed of two concave spherical mirrors working at grazing incidence. That device, named KB microscope, presents a 3-5 m resolution within a field having a radius about 100 m; outside that field, its resolution lowers rapidly when the object point recedes from the center. The adjunction of two similar mirrors can notably increase the useful field ͑typically, the resolution can be better than 10 m within a 2-mm-diam field of view͒, which is necessary for studying laser plasmas. Its main advantage with respect to more simple optics, as the pinhole, is that it can be located far enough from the plasma to avoid any destruction during the shot. We describe such a microscope that we call KBA microscope and present some images of fine metallic grids. Those grids were backlighted by x-ray sources, either a cw one or a series of laser plasmas from the Octal-Héliotrope facility. Examining the films in detail shows that the experimental results are very close to the theoretical characteristics; hence the interest of this device for the x-ray diagnostics on the future powerful laser facilities.
The double Kirkpatrick–Baez (DBA) microscope is derived from the grazing x-ray Kirkpatrick–Baez (KB) microscope. The KB is compound of two concave spherical mirrors working at grazing incidence and in an energy range about 100 eV–10 keV. The combination of two similar mirrors in the DKB increases the useful field. This device only requires spherical mirrors, more easy to manufacture (precision and roughness) than aspherical ones. In order to image a laser plasma source in a large field of view and within a bandpass of 0.6 keV around 3.4 keV, a KB optic covered with multilayers is developed. In fact, a compromise has to be found between the resolution of the optic (better with a less grazing angle), and the reflectivity (better with more grazing angle). We have chosen to keep the average grazing incidence on the four mirrors around 2°–3° just as for a first uncoated DKB made in our laboratory. This allows us to keep the same radius of curvature for the mirrors. At this energy multilayers are needed, due to the required reflectivity of better than 7% for each mirror. A difficulty appears concerning the energy and angular acceptance of multilayers. It is shown that a nonperiodic multilayer structure can be calculated to solve this problem, in spite of the absorption of the layers at the low energy of our application. The variation of periods is not continuous as in known classical supermirrors, and all the experimental parameters such as complex index of refraction and roughness have to be known. Thicknesses can then be optimized individually. The multilayers were deposited, tested, and the defects identified and corrected. Final experimental results of such stacks are given.
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