Study describes a tabletop source of bright, coherent X-rays

Study describes a tabletop source of bright, coherent X-rays. It could become simpler and cheaper to produce tightly focused beams of high-energy X-rays, according to study Producing tightly focused beams of high energy X-rays, to examine everything from molecular structures to the integrity of aircraft wings, could become simpler and cheaper according to new research. Today, , researchers from Imperial College London, the University of Michigan and Instituto Superior Téchnico Lisbon describe a tabletop instrument that produces synchrotron X-rays, whose energy and quality rivals that produced by some of the largest X-ray facilities in the world. Scientific and medical advances often depend on the development of better diagnostic and analytical tools, to enable more and more precise investigations at higher and higher resolutions. The development and use of high energy light sources to probe the details of a wide range of materials for research and commercial purposes is a rapidly growing area of science and engineering. However, high power, high quality X-ray sources are typically very large and very expensive. For example, the Diamond Light Source synchrotron facility in Didcot, UK, is 0.5km in circumference and cost £263M to build.