Status of the liquid-metal-jet-anode electron-impact x-ray source

We have demonstrated a new electron-impact hard-x-ray source based on a liquid-metal-jet anode in a proof-of-principle experiment. Initial calculations show that this new anode concept potentially allows a >100x increase in source brightness compared to today's compact hard-x-ray sources. In this paper we report on the scale up of the system to medium electron-beam power resulting in a brightness comparable to current state-of-the-art sources. The upgraded system combines a ~20-μm diameter liquid-tin jet operating at ~60 m/s with a 50 kV, 600 W electron beam focused to ~150 μm FWHM. We describe the properties of the current system, experimental results, as well as a brief discussion of key issues for future high-power scaling.