Technion researchers develop new radiation sources
The radiation sources may reduce costs by replacing current, expensive facilities.
By EVE YOUNGDoctor inspects an x-ray, illustrative(photo credit: PIKREPO)
Researchers from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology have developed an X-ray apparatus that produces controlled radiation which may lead to breakthroughs in imaging and security screening.The research, led by Prof. Ido Kaminer and master’s candidate Michael Shentics and published in Nature Phonetics, focused on fundamental mechanisms of X-ray generation.The radiation sources developed by the researchers may reduce costs by replacing current, expensive facilities. The radiation produced is narrow spectrum and can be tuned with high resolution with relatively low energy investments. The research was motivated by the growing demand for laboratory-scale X-ray sources that are high-brightness and highly tunable. The research paper provides a proof-of-concept for use of two-dimensional materials to produce accurate and controlled radiation.Researchers sent electron beams at specific angles through the different van der Waals materials they produced, which led to controlled and accurate X-ray emission."The experiment and the theory we developed to explain it make a significant contribution to the study of light-matter interactions and pave the way for varied applications in X-ray imaging (medical X-ray, for example), X-ray spectroscopy used to characterize materials, and future quantum light sources in the X-ray regime," Kaminer said.
