International
Tables for Crystallography Volume C Mathematical, physical and chemical tables Edited by E. Prince © International Union of Crystallography 2006 |
International Tables for Crystallography (2006). Vol. C. ch. 2.3, p. 75
|
The remarkable properties of synchrotron-radiation sources, which produce very high intensity parallel beams of continuous `white' radiation, are described in Subsection 4.2.1.5
, and their use in powder diffraction in Section 2.3.2
.
Fluorescent sources produced by primary X-ray tube excitation of a selected element have the advantage of a wide range of wavelengths but have too low brightness to be useful for powder diffraction. The intensity is 2–3 orders of magnitude lower than an X-ray tube source (Parrish, Lowitzsch & Spielberg, 1958).
Radionuclides that decay by K-electron capture and produce X-rays (e.g. Mn Kα from 55Fe) have too low brightness for use in powder diffraction. They are often used to calibrate detectors and to measure the stability of a counting system (Dyson, 1973).
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