A glass capillary with an inner metal coating is proposed to be used as soft-x-ray fiber optics in medical applications. Based on the results of theoretical calculations, nickel was chosen as the coating material for x rays radiated from a conventional x-ray tube. A nickel-coated capillary was fabricated by electroless deposition, and focusing and collimating effects were observed from measurements of the transmission efficiency of soft x rays. The transmission of a nickel-coated capillary with an inner diameter of 0.53 mm and a length of 300 mm was 10%, which is approximately double that of an uncoated glass capillary.

A glass capillary with inner metal coating is proposed as a high efficiency, soft x-ray optic for medical applications. Based on results of theoretical calculation, for x-ray radiated from conventional x-ray tube, nickel is chosen as a coating material. A nickel-coated capillary is fabricated by using electroless deposition and the focusing and collimating effects are observed from measurement of transmission efficiency of soft x-ray.