X-ray propagation through polycapillary optics studied through a ray tracing approach

Single and polycapillary optics has obtained in recent times increasing attention for its potential high efficiency as device for focusing highenergy photons and thermal neutrons. The actually developed and future applications depend strongly on a detailed knowledge of the optical characteristics of such devices. Nevertheless, an exhaustive theoretical treatment of the polycapillary properties is extremely complicated due both to the intrinsic complexity of the structure and of the interaction between the X-ray photon beam and the mono- and polycapillary surfaces. Using PolyCAD, a ray-tracing original package developed by our group, here we report a wide study concerning single and polycapillary optics properties. The software allows easily to simulate the optical path inside cylindrical, conical and curved mono- and polycapillary structures; their focusing properties are also presented and discussed. (c) 2007 Published by Elsevier B.V.