High energy X-rays

High-energy X-rays or HEX-rays are very hard X-rays, with typical energies of 80–1000 keV (1 MeV), about one order of magnitude higher than conventional X-rays (and well into gamma-ray energies over 120 keV). They are produced at modern synchrotron radiation sources such as the beamline ID15 at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF). The main benefit is the deep penetration into matter which makes them a probe for thick samples in physics and materials science and permits an in-air sample environment and operation. Scattering angles are small and diffraction directed forward allows for simple detector setups.

High-energy X-rays (HEX-rays) between 100 and 300 keV bear unique advantage over conventional hard X-rays, which lie in the range of 5–20 keV They can be listed as follows:

With these advantages, HEX-rays can be applied for a wide range of investigations. An overview, which is far from complete:

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