Project 1: Quality of Silicon Crystals for X-ray Optics

Perfect Silicon crystal are used to disperse and select a single 
wavelength of x-ray radiation coming from the wide spectrum of light 
produced by the Cornell particle accelerator.  Because the accelerator 
produces great quantities of heat, the silicon crystals must be cooled 
by water flowing through internally-machined channels.  CHESS machines 
its own crystal using a computer-controlled surface grinder and then 
bonds two pieces together to make the final x-ray crystal.

This project will involve working with staff engineers Jim Savino and 
Lee Geiger to finish building a very sensitive x-ray strain measurement 
system.  This machine uses x-rays to explore the crystal surface and 
search for imperfections that might have been caused by the machining 
and/or bonding process. Accurate two- and three-dimensional information 
will be used to improve the fabrication process.

Background material/links:

http://www.chess.cornell.edu/Publications/Brochure/brochure.htm
   ( overview to x-ray science done at CHESS)
http://www.chess.cornell.edu/Publications/Newsletter_1995/hhloptics.html
http://www.chess.cornell.edu/Publications/NewsMagazine_2002/NMFromStaff2000.pdf
   (see several articles on X-ray Optics... )