Measurement of an inverse Compton scattering source local spectrum using k-edge filters

X-ray sources based on the inverse Compton scattering process are attracting a growing interest among scientists, due to their extremely fast pulse, quasi-monochromatic spectrum, and relatively high intensity. The energy spectrum of the x-ray beam produced by inverse Compton scattering sources in a fixed observation direction is a quasi-monochromatic approximately Gaussian distribution. The mean value of this distribution varies with the scattering polar angle between the electron beam direction and the x-ray beam observation direction. Previous works reported experimental measurements of the mean energy as a function of the polar angle. This work introduces a method for the measurement of the whole local energy spectrum (i.e., the spectrum in a fixed observation direction) of the x-ray beam yielded by inverse Compton scattering sources, based on a k-edge filtering technique. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4703932] RI Oliva, Piernicola/E-5839-2012