Divergence effects in monochromatic x-ray microdiffraction using tapered capillary optics

Tapered capillaries are frequently used as beam-concentrating optics in microbeam x-ray diffraction experiments. The beams exiting such devices are usually highly divergent and may possess nonuniform intensity distributions. In addition, their alignment poses some special challenges. In this article, the effects of these factors on the precision and accuracy of diffraction data are presented.