Beam foot print (Parallel beam geometry)

About the calculator

The calculator calculates the width of the incident X-ray beam on a sample for a given incident angle (θ), beam divergence (δ), slit width (R), and the distance from the slit to the sample surface (L).

How to use it

  1. Set the starting incident angle (θstart) and the step angle (θstep) to run the calculation.
  2. Enter beam divergence (δ) and the distance from the slit to the sample surface (Li).
  3. Enter the slit width (R) to calculate the beam footprint for different incident angles. You can set up to four slit widths.

Theory

Variables

Symbol Meaning Units
θstart Starting incident angle degree
θstep Incident angle step size degree
R1 – R4 Slit width(s) mm
δ X-ray beam divergence degree
D Distance from the slit to the sample surface mm
L1 – L4 Beam width at the sample surface mm

The beam width at the sample surface L is calculated as follows:

\(L_i = R_i + D \tan(\delta)\)

The beam footprint F at incident angle θ is calculated as:

\(F_i  = \frac{L_i}{\sin(\theta)}\)

Diagram showing a slit of width W, beam divergence δ, incident angle θ, and resulting beam width on the sample.
Incident angle parameters
[deg]
[deg]
Slit Width Parameters
[mm]
[mm]
[mm]
[mm]
Beam & Geometry Parameters
[deg]
[mm]
Calculated Beam Widths
0.07
[mm]
0.10
[mm]
0.20
[mm]
0.30
[mm]
Beam Width vs Incident Angle
Beam Width Data
θ [deg] F1 [mm] F2 [mm] F3 [mm] F4 [mm]