A technique for measuring the quality of an elliptically bent pentaerythritol [PET(002)] crystal.

We present a technique for determining the X-ray spectral quality from each region of an elliptically curved PET(002) crystal. The investigative technique utilizes the shape of the crystal rocking curve which changes significantly as the radius of curvature changes. This unique quality information enables the spectroscopist to verify where in the spectral range that the spectrometer performance is satisfactory and where there are regions that would show spectral distortion. A collection of rocking curve measurements for elliptically curved PET(002) has been built up in our X-ray laboratory. The multi-lamellar model from the XOP software has been used as a guide and corrections were applied to the model based upon measurements. But, the measurement of R at small radius of curvature shows an anomalous behavior; the multi-lamellar model fails to show this behavior. The effect of this anomalous R behavior on an X-ray spectrometer calibration is calculated. It is compared to the multi-lamellar model calculation which is completely inadequate for predicting R for this range of curvature and spectral energies.