A novel incoherent X-ray source using the inverse Compton scattering mechanism in a linear accelerator

Summary form only given, as follows. A classical theory to characterize inverse Compton scattering from a pulsed relativistic electron beam colliding head on with a high energy, pulsed, laser beam has been developed and will be presented. Agreement between classical and quantum mechanical theories will be demonstrated. Analytical expressions for the total and differential powers will be shown. Numerical studies are based on the parameters of an existing linear accelerator and existing high energy ruby and CO/sub 2/ lasers. The electron beam and photon beam profiles are pulsed along and gaussian perpendicular to the direction of motion. Numerical calculations show that the total power scattered from a single 30 MeV, 500 ps pulsed electron beam (3-10 nC) illuminated with a single 5 ns pulse of focused ruby or CO/sub 2/ photons (10 J) can generate enough X-ray photons to be detected with a sensitive Csl X-ray detector. The scattered power is distributed in a very narrow conical region in the back scattered direction. This distribution will be show and the properties of the windowless Csl X-ray detector will be presented. The tunable property of this VUV/X-ray source will be discussed. A comparison with other non-nuclear X-ray sources will be made.