Effective X-ray beam size measurements of an X-ray tube and polycapillary X-ray lens system using a scanning X-ray fluorescence method

Size measurements of an X-ray beam produced by an integrated polycapillary X-ray lens (PXL) and X-ray tube system were performed by means of a scanning X-ray fluorescence (SXRF) method using three different metallic wires. The beam size was obtained by fitting the SXRF data with the analytical convolution between a Gaussian and a constant functions. For each chemical element in the wire an effective energy was calculated based on the incident X-ray spectrum and its photoelectric cross section. The proposed method can be used to measure the effective X-ray beam size in XRF microscopy studies.