Tiny chip-based device performs ultrafast X-ray manipulation
New optics-on-a-chip device paves the way to helping characterize fast chemical, material, and biological processes.
The Science
Optical microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) are tiny microchip-size devices that control light and communications. Separately, time-resolved X-ray probes are devices that help scientists study highly transient phenomena. These phenomena are short-lived and involve fast structural and functional changes. Scientists have now developed X-ray optics based on specially designed and fabricated MEMS that can harness extremely short X-ray pulses. The new devices are much smaller and lighter than conventional devices used to operate X-ray probes, and they could be essential for experiments on ultrafast phenomena at synchrotron and free-electron laser X-ray sources.
The Impact
The new ultrafast optics-on-a-chip device will be orders of magnitude smaller and lighter than conventional devices used to manipulate X-ray probes. This will enable innovative X-ray research and applications. The device could help scientists study fast-evolving chemical, material, and biological processes. The results could aid in the development of efficient solar cells and batteries, advanced computer storage, and novel drugs. In this study, scientists demonstrated the device at a synchrotron facility. A fully developed version could be used with the X-ray generators found in hospitals and university laboratories. In these settings, the devices could support fast non-destructive diagnostics or precise dosage for radiation therapy.
Summary
The research team, consisting of scientists from the Advanced Photon Source (APS) and Center for Nanoscale Materials (CNM), demonstrated the X-ray optics-on-a-chip device using the X-ray source at the APS. The APS and CNM are Department of Energy (DOE) scientific user facilities at Argonne National Laboratory. The device, designed at the CNM, measures only 250 micrometers and weighs just 3.5 micrograms. The extremely small size and low weight of the MEMS-based shutter allow it to oscillate at speeds equivalent to about one million revolutions per minute. The researchers leveraged this high speed and the MEMS material’s X-ray diffractive property to create an extremely fast X-ray shutter. The resulting ultrafast X-ray optics-on-a-chip can manipulate hard X-ray pulses exceeding 350 MHz, or 1,000 times higher than any mechanical modulator. Moreover, the devices’ timing characteristics can be tuned for a host of dynamic X-ray instruments and applications, impossible with traditional optics that are typically one billion times more massive. The X-ray optics-on-a-chip devices set the stage for future dynamic and miniature X-ray optics for time-domain science and accelerator diagnostics and control, including wave-front manipulation, spectral dispersion, multiplexing, and pulse slicing.
Funding
The research was supported by DOE’s Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences, Scientific User Facilities Division.
Media Contact
Michael Church
DOE/US Department of Energy
michael.church@science.doe.gov
Office: 2028416299
All latest news from the category: Physics and Astronomy
This area deals with the fundamental laws and building blocks of nature and how they interact, the properties and the behavior of matter, and research into space and time and their structures.
innovations-report provides in-depth reports and articles on subjects such as astrophysics, laser technologies, nuclear, quantum, particle and solid-state physics, nanotechnologies, planetary research and findings (Mars, Venus) and developments related to the Hubble Telescope.
Newest articles
NASA: Mystery of life’s handedness deepens
The mystery of why life uses molecules with specific orientations has deepened with a NASA-funded discovery that RNA — a key molecule thought to have potentially held the instructions for…
What are the effects of historic lithium mining on water quality?
Study reveals low levels of common contaminants but high levels of other elements in waters associated with an abandoned lithium mine. Lithium ore and mining waste from a historic lithium…
Quantum-inspired design boosts efficiency of heat-to-electricity conversion
Rice engineers take unconventional route to improving thermophotovoltaic systems. Researchers at Rice University have found a new way to improve a key element of thermophotovoltaic (TPV) systems, which convert heat…