Component Manual for the Xray-Tracing Package McXtrace, version 3.8.6

4.7  The Chopper_simple McXtrace Component

Ideal chopper

Identification

Description

Ideal model of a chopper situated at Z=0. If a photon arrives at the chopper plane at a time of t = [t0 +-n*T: t0 +-n*T +tau], where T is the period of the chopper, t0 the initial delay and tau the opening time of the chopper, it is left untouched - otherwise it is ABSORBed. If on a continous source the isfirst parameter may be used. In this case the photon time is _defined_ by the chopper. In other words no photons are absorbed, the photon time is merely sampled within the chopper window. t_rise is the rise-time of the chopper opening giving a trapezoidal shape. Limitations: this component does not take chopper geometry into account. If isfirst only samples in the first chopper opening window.

Example: Chopper_simple(

t0 = -0.5/M_C, T = 20e-6, tau = 100e-12, xwidth = 1e-4,

yheight = 1e-4, isfirst = 1)

Input parameters

Parameters in boldface are required; the others are optional.

Name

Unit

Description

Default

t0

s

Initial delay of the opening time

0

T

s

Period of the chopper

1

tau

s

Opening time of the chopper

0.1

xwidth

m

Height of the chopper opening

0.1

yheight

m

Width of the chopeper opening

0.1

isfirst

0/1

Is the chopper the first chopper on a continous source.

0

t_rise

s

Rise time of the chopper pulse.

0

tjit

1

Timing jitter in terms of the opening time tau. For each ray the opening window will be shifted by a random amount within t=[-tjit*.5*tau,tjit*.5*tau]

0

Links

An ideal chopper

Chopper_simple is an idelized version of a chopper with a rectangular chopper opening which may open instantly and has no side-scattering etc.

It models the chopper with a blocking infinitely thin aperture which becomes transparent in the time interval \(t\in \left [\mathit {t0},\mathit {t0}+\tau \right ]\). This is an idelized version of a chopper where the chopper opening is rectangular which may open instantly (if t_rise\(=0\), the default). For nonzero rise time the aperture simply becomes gradually less opaque for \(t\in \left [\mathit {t0}-\textit {t\_rise},\mathit {t0}\right ]\).

For correct normalization of intesity a chopper period, T, must also be set.

isfirst is useful when using Chopper_simple with continous sources who inherently have no time-dependence. Thus the emission time of the photon ray is arbitrary, and the chopper defines the temporal signature of the beam, i.e. it simply sets the time-parameter of the photon ray randomly in the opening window of the chopper. Naturally this should only be used for the first chopper element in a simulation.