Patent ID: 8068582

Claim:
A method for illuminating a target to analyze its contents, comprising: a) providing a source of photons in an X-ray energy range including photons of energy greater than 100 keV; b) locating a crystal lens comprised of a plurality of lens surfaces arranged in at least one concentric circle, at a predetermined location relative to the photon source such that a beam of photons from the photon source is incident on said plurality of lens surfaces at at least one preselected angle of incidence to the surfaces; and c) locating a target at a predetermined location relative to the crystal lens such that a plurality of photons from the photon beam in a preselected energy range are diffracted by the lens surfaces to be incident on a preselected portion of the target; further comprising moving the target such that a plurality of the diffracted photons scan at least a portion of a target surface.