Bent silicon crystal in the Laue geometry to resolve x-ray fluorescence for x-ray absorption spectroscopy

A highly strained, curved silicon crystal in the Laue geometry has been used as a large-area x-ray fluorescence analyzer for x-ray absorption spectroscopy. The analyzer is able to resolve the Lα fluorescence lines for neighboring actinide elements. A large gain in the signal to background ratio has been demonstrated for small quantities of Np in the presence of U, with the U fluorescence peak approaching 1000 times the magnitude of the off-peak background.