Question

Why is it difficult to make an X-ray lens or mirror? Please give detailed answers thanks

Answer 1

It is difficult to make an X-Ray lens or mirror because X-rays are made up of very high energetic photons up to 100 keV (kilo electron volts) which requires 1-1.5 mm thick aluminium sheet to stop / absorb it, while other particle like alpha, beta just need few mm thickness of paper / cardboard to absorb them.

From this observation we can conclude how energetic these X-Ray photons are.

so, if we try to make X-Ray mirror, which needed to reflect the X-rays, while these X-rays will tend to penetrate the substance of mirror made and cannot be reflected back.

while in case of lenses which bends the incident light, in case if X-rays the frequency is so high such that the rays will pass undeflected and fails the working of X-Ray lens.

Therefore, it's very difficult to make X-Ray lenses and mirrors.

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