Narrow Line X-Ray Transition Radiation by Electron Beam Traversing a Solid-State Superlattice

Abstract

Soft x-ray can be generated by low energy electron beams traversing a periodic layered medium with very short spatial period as was shown previously by Kaplan and Datta. We show that a combination of materials with high and low atomic number can produce an intense x-ray radiation with very narrow spectral peaks at the vicinity of K, L, … atomic absorption edges of each of the materials. We propose selection rules for materials constituting the solid-state superlattice. Our results demonstrate that an inexpensive x-ray source with mega (or submega) electron volt energy of electron beam can be used to generate narrow-line x-ray radiation.