The role of ALFT as a commercial supplier of soft X-ray sources for the medical, biological fields, and nanotechnology

Summary form only given. For a number of years, ALFT, Inc. has developed a laboratory soft X-ray source for the many analyses that are now being carried out at synchrotron locations. It is a Vacuum Spark source (VSX). The source is a pulsed point plasma working at 20 kHz and emitting pulses of 50 nsec duration of soft X-rays around 1 keV or 10 Angstroms wavelength. The average power is 400 mW in the VSX 400 machine. In terms of photon flux, it emits an average of 10E15 photons/sec, with peak flux of 10E18 photons/sec. Being a thermal source, the radiation is divergent. Because of its divergence, the source can be used along different directions, 4 beams being now part of the present commercial machine. This laboratory tool has been thoroughly developed to the point that it reliably runs continuously without deterioration of power or spectral purity. The plasma can be generated from among many elements, copper and tungsten being two of the presently used. A more powerful source, the VSX Z10, of 10 Watts average power, has been also developed by ALFT, Inc. and has now reached the prototype stage. It is again a thermal divergent plasma source emitting in excess of 10E16 photons/sec with peak flux of 10E24 photons/sec. This source works at low frequency (1 Hz) still in the pulsed mode with pulse duration of 50 nsec. Sources in the 50 Watts range are now being considered for further development.