For many applications there is a requirement for nondestructive analytical investigation of the elemental distribution in a sample. With the improvement of X-ray optics and spectroscopic X-ray imagers, full field X-ray fluorescence (FF-XRF) methods are feasible. A new device for high-resolution X-ray imaging, an energy and spatial resolving X-ray camera, is presented. The basic idea behind this so-called "color X-ray camera" (CXC) is to combine an energy dispersive array detector for X-rays, in this case a pnCCD, with polycapillary optics. Imaging is achieved using multiframe recording of the energy and the point of impact of single photons. The camera was tested using a laboratory 30 μm microfocus X-ray tube and synchrotron radiation from BESSY II at the BAMline facility. These experiments demonstrate the suitability of the camera for X-ray fluorescence analytics. The camera simultaneously records 69,696 spectra with an energy resolution of 152 eV for manganese K(α) with a spatial resolution of 50 μm over an imaging area of 12.7 × 12.7 mm(2). It is sensitive to photons in the energy region between 3 and 40 keV, limited by a 50 μm beryllium window, and the sensitive thickness of 450 μm of the chip. Online preview of the sample is possible as the software updates the sums of the counts for certain energy channel ranges during the measurement and displays 2-D false-color maps as well as spectra of selected regions. The complete data cube of 264 × 264 spectra is saved for further qualitative and quantitative processing.

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Practically achieved parameters of capillary optics are presented. A micro x-ray fluorescence (XRF) arrangement was realized by using a microfocus x-ray tube and a capillary optic. Several examples for application of micro XRF are given. It was shown that polycapillary lenses free of the “halo effect” well suited for micro XRF of heavy elements can be manufactured. Limits of opportunities for micro XRF applications and further development for micro XRF by using capillary optics are analyzed.

The principles of X-ray capillary optics are described and different types of capillary optical elements are discussed, especially, the main parameters of these optical elements such as intensity gain, focal spot size, beam divergence, etc. Details are given and experimental results for these parameters are presented. Furthermore, various application examples in micro X-ray fluorescence analysis for the determination of the two dimen-sional elemental distribution at sample surfaces as well as depth profiling are presented. Finally, the suitability of capillary optics for different diffractrometric investigations is shown, especially, examples for single crystal, polycrystal and powder diffractometry also with high lateral resolution and real time diffractometry are presented.

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