Soft-x-ray hollow fiber optics with inner metal coating.

A glass capillary with an inner metal coating is proposed to be used as soft-x-ray fiber optics in medical applications. Based on the results of theoretical calculations, nickel was chosen as the coating material for x rays radiated from a conventional x-ray tube. A nickel-coated capillary was fabricated by electroless deposition, and focusing and collimating effects were observed from measurements of the transmission efficiency of soft x rays.