Focusing properties of bent micro-channel plates in the X-ray range

Compact and flexible Micro-Channel Plate (MCP) devices are versatile optical systems suitable to condense and shape intense X-ray beams. Studies on propagation of both soft and hard X-ray radiations through these devices are of continuous interests because of increasing demand of synchrotron radiation X‑ray sources, in particular, to enhance the spot stability and to optimize the beam for specific experiments. In this work synchrotron radiation sources as well as a conventional X-ray tube coupled to polycapillary lenses have been used to characterize the transmission and the angular distribution of thin flat or spherically bent MCPs with different curvature radii. It is shown that the radiation beam from both synchrotron radiation and conventional X-ray sources can be efficiently condensed by thin spherically bent MCPs.