Piezo modulated active grating for selecting X ray pulses separated by one nanosecond

We present a novel method of temporal modulation of X ray radiation for time resolved experiments. To control the intensity of the X ray beam, the Bragg reflection of a piezoelectric crystal is modified using comb shaped electrodes deposited on the crystal surface. Voltage applied to the electrodes induces a periodic deformation of the crystal that acts as a diffraction grating, splitting the original Bragg reflection into several satellites. A pulse of X rays can be created by rapidly switching the voltage on and off. In our prototype device the duty cycle was limited to amp; 8764;1 ns by the driving electronics. The prototype can be used to generate X ray pulses from a continuous source. It can also be electrically correlated to a synchrotron light source and be activated to transmit only selected synchrotron pulses. Since the device operates in a non resonant mode, different activation patterns and pulse durations can be achieve