The production mechanism and characteristics of Cherenkov radiation in the soft X-ray region

In this paper, the production mechanisms and the spectral-angular distribution of X-ray Cherenkov radiation (XCR) was investigated in detail and some unique properties of XCR and its applications were discussed. It is shown that, in the vicinity of the atomic absorption edges, the real and the imaginary parts of the refractive index are varied drastically and for some materials the refractive index exceed unity and Cherenkov radiation can be generated in soft X-ray regions with a narrow band width. By selecting suitable Cherenkov emitters and using laboratory-sized electron accelerators, in the optimal conditions, the brightness of the soft X-ray source was calculated and compared to other soft X-ray sources. On the basis of these investigations, some unique properties of XCR such as, narrow band width and high brightness make XCR as a novel soft X-ray source for applications in soft X-ray microscopy, photoelectron spectroscopy and other research areas.