An x-ray tube based room-temperature Compton spectrometer, with application to material characterization

Abstract

A description is given of the principle of operation, design and technical realization of a Compton spectrometer. In contrast to many other devices that have been discussed in the literature, the Compton spectrometer described here combines an electron-impact x-ray source with a room-temperature semiconductor detector.It is shown that the momentum resolution of the Compton spectrometer for the K characteristic lines emitted by the tube anode is adequate to resolve the Doppler broadening originating in electron momentum distributions of low atomic number elements, such as carbon, nitrogen and oxygen. Experimental Compton-broadened spectra from a range of common materials are presented. Methods to extract Compton profiles from the experimental spectra, by accounting for the continuous component of the x-ray tube emission and the multiplet nature of the characteristic lines, are illustrated. The application of this Compton spectrometer to material characterization is briefly discussed.