Advanced spectroscopic investigation of colour centres in LiF crystals irradiated with monochromatic hard x-rays.

Nominally-pure lithium fluoride (LiF) crystals were irradiated with monochromatic hard x-rays of energy 5, 7, 9 and 12 keV at the METROLOGIE beamline of the SOLEIL synchrotron facility, in order to understand the role of the selected x-ray energy on their visible photoluminescence (PL) response, which is used for high spatial resolution 2D x-ray imaging detectors characterized by a wide dynamic range. At the energies of 7 and 12 keV the irradiations were performed at five different doses corresponding to five uniformly irradiated areas, while at 5 and 9 keV only two irradiations at two different doses were carried out. The doses were planned in a range between 4 and 1.4 × 103Gy (10.5 mJ cm-3to 3.7 J cm-3), depending on the x-ray energy. After irradiation at the energies of 7 and 12 keV, the spectrally-integrated visible PL intensity of the F2and F3+colour centres (CCs) generated in the LiF crystals, carefully measured by fluorescence microscopy under blue excitation, exhibits a linear dependence on the irradiation dose in the investigated dose range. This linear behaviour was confirmed by the optical absorption spectra of the irradiated spots, which shows a similar linear behaviour for both the F2and F3+CCs, as derived from their overlapping absorption band at around 450 nm. At the highest x-ray energy, the average concentrations of the radiation-induced F, F2and F3+CCs were also estimated. The volume distributions of F2defects in the crystals irradiated with 5 and 9 keV x-rays were reconstructed in 3D by measuring their PL signal using a confocal laser scanning microscope operating in fluorescence mode. On-going investigations are focusing on the results obtained through thisz-scanning technique to explore the potential impact of absorption effects at the excitation laser wavelength.

Visible proton Bragg curve imaging by colour centre photoluminescence in radiation detectors based on lithium fluoride films on silica.

Passive solid-state radiation detectors, based on the visible photoluminescence (PL) of radiation-induced colour centres in optically transparent lithium fluoride (LiF), polycrystalline thin films are under investigation for proton beam advanced diagnostics. After proton exposure, the latent images stored in LiF as local formations of stable F2and F3+aggregate defects, are directly read with a fluorescence microscope under illumination in the blue spectral range. Adopting a suitable irradiation geometry, the energy density that protons deposit in the material can be recorded as a spatial distribution of these light-emitting defects, from which a luminous replica of the proton Bragg curve can be thereafter extracted and analysed to reconstruct the proton beam energy spectrum. Their peculiar properties, such as wide dynamic range and linearity of the spectrally-integrated PL response vs. dose, make the investigation of two-dimensional LiF film radiation detectors grown on several types of substrate highly attractive. Here, the case of a LiF thin film thermally evaporated on a silica substrate, irradiated at grazing incidence with a 35 MeV proton beam, is investigated and reported for the first time. A comparison of the measured photoluminescent Bragg curve with Monte Carlo simulations demonstrates that the Bragg peak in the film is located at the very same position that would be expected in the underlying silica substrate rather than in LiF. The film packing density is shown not to have a significant effect on the peak depth, while even small nonzero grazing angle of the impinging proton beam is able to significantly modify the shape of the Bragg curve. These findings are ascribed to the effects of multiple Coulomb scattering in both the film and the substrate and are interesting for proton beam diagnostics and dosimetry.

Improved beam propagation method equations.

Improved beam propagation method (BPM) equations are derived for the general case of arbitrary refractive-index spatial distributions. It is shown that in the paraxial approximation the discrete equations admit an analytical solution for the propagation of a paraxial spherical wave, which converges to the analytical solution of the paraxial Helmholtz equation. The generalized Kirchhoff-Fresnel diffraction integral between the object and the image planes can be derived, with its coefficients expressed in terms of the standard ABCD matrix. This result allows the substitution, in the case of an unaberrated system, of the many numerical steps with a single analytical step. We compared the predictions of the standard and improved BPM equations by considering the cases of a Maxwell fish-eye and of a Luneburg lens.

Spatial and spectral response of a Fabry-Perot interferometer illuminated by a Gaussian beam.

A generalized study has been done of the transmission characteristics of a Fabry-Perot interferometer (FPI) illuminated by a Gaussian light beam impinging on it at normal and non-normal incidence. The theoretical approach is based on a plane-wave, angular-spectrum representation of both the incident Gaussian beam and the transmitted beam. Expressions are obtained for the FPI instrumental function and for the spatial distribution of the transmitted beam. Numerical results are presented for the FPI maximum transmission, effective finesse, and spectral displacement of the interference maximum.

Transverse modes in laser cavities terminating in reflective multipass interferometers.

The effect of reflective multipass interferometers on the transverse modes of laser cavities equipped with these devices is investigated. We demonstrate, both theoretically and experimentally in a pulsed CO(2) laser, how information on the characteristics of these modes can be directly derived by simply describing these cavities in terms of suitable equivalent geometric parameters. We also discuss and explain the transverse-mode selective properties of these multimirror cavities.