Investigation of `glitches' in the energy spectrum induced by single-crystal diamond compound X-ray refractive lenses.

Single-crystal diamond stands out among all the candidate materials that could be exploited to fabricate compound refractive lenses (CRLs) owing to its extremely stable properties. Among all related experimental features, beam divergence, χ-angles relative to the incoming beam in Eulerian geometry and different positions of the X-ray beam relative to the lens geometry may influence the transmission energy spectrum of CRLs. In addition, the orientation of the single-crystal diamond sample may also affect the glitches significantly. To verify these initial assumptions, two experiments, an energy scan and an ω-scan, were set up by employing a polished diamond plate consisting of five biconcave lenses. The results show that beam divergence does not affect the spectrum, nor do χ-angles when ω is set to zero. Nevertheless, different incident positions have an appreciable effect on the transmission spectrum, in particular the `strengths' of the glitches. This is attributed to absorption. The ω-scan setup is capable of determining the so-called orientation matrix, which may be used to predict both `energy positions' and `strengths' of the glitches.

The atomic anisotropic displacement tensor ­ completing the picture.

A simplified approach for calculating the equivalent isotropic displacement parameter is presented and the transformation property of the tensor representation U to point-group operations is analysed. Complete tables have been compiled for the restrictions imposed upon the tensor owing to the site symmetry associated with all special positions as listed in Hahn [(2011), International Tables for Crystallography, Vol. A, Space-group Symmetry, 5th revised ed. Chichester: John Wiley and Sons, Ltd].

The benefit of the European User Community from transnational access to national radiation facilities.

Transnational access (TNA) to national radiation sources is presently provided via programmes of the European Commission by BIOSTRUCT-X and CALIPSO with a major benefit for scientists from European countries. Entirely based on scientific merit, TNA allows all European scientists to realise synchrotron radiation experiments for addressing the Societal Challenges promoted in HORIZON2020. In addition, by TNA all European users directly take part in the development of the research infrastructure of facilities. The mutual interconnection of users and facilities is a strong prerequisite for future development of the research infrastructure of photon science. Taking into account the present programme structure of HORIZON2020, the European Synchrotron User Organization (ESUO) sees considerable dangers for the continuation of this successful collaboration in the future.

Three-beam resonant X-ray diffraction in germanium - Laue transmission cases.

Perturbation of the two-beam diffracted power owing to the influence of a third lattice node has been examined for various three-beam cases in a small finite germanium crystal in the vicinity of the K-absorption edge. Although the crystal was slightly imperfect, the main parts of the experimental results are very well described within the framework of the fundamental theory of X-ray diffraction in conjunction with Cromer-Liberman calculations for the resonant scattering terms. Beam divergence and dynamical block size are treated as adjustable parameters in the analysis. Observed changes in the three-beam profile asymmetry are mainly attributed to size and not to resonance effects associated with the triplet phase sum of the involved reflections. Close to the absorption edge there is however some evidence indicating that f' values should be reduced in magnitude compared to the tabulated ones.

Three-beam diffraction in an elastically strained crystal plate.

Based on the Takagi-Taupin equations, an analytical expression for the three-beam diffraction profile function in an elastically strained crystal plate is derived. The strain parameters appear in the shape functions governing both triplet-phase dependent and independent terms in the solution. Simulations show that three-beam profiles are significantly influenced. With increasing strain any phase information in the profiles is obscured and subsequently lost.

Three-beam X-ray diffraction in a semi-infinite perfect crystal.

The approach to multibeam X-ray diffraction by Shen [Acta Cryst. (1986). A42, 525-533] has been carefully re-examined for three-beam Laue-Laue diffraction in a perfect non-absorbing semi-infinite crystal. A modified version of Shen's theory is shown to be equivalent to the Takagi-Taupin formalism. The perturbation of the two-beam integrated power when a third beam is being excited is thus expressed by non-diverging terms. Both Aufhellung and Umweganregung terms are recovered.