In 1670 Isaac Newton demonstrated the composite nature of sunlight when he sent a carefully collimated sunbeam through a prism, which spread out the light into a rainbow of colors; by sending a beam of single color through a second prism (with no further spreading) Newton showed that the color was not being imposed by the prism but was intrinsic to the light itself. Now physicists using the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Lab, in Illinois, have spread out a beam of X-rays (which are, after all, just a more energetic version of visible light) into a rainbow of colors.Trying to reflect X-rays from a surface is difficult because X-ray wavelengths are some 10,000 times shorter than those for visible light. Glancing reflection of only a few tenths of a degree is normally possible, and even then the beam of X-rays will suffer very little wavelength-dependent spreading. However, another phenomenon, Bragg diffraction, allows for scattering of X-rays from a crystal through large angles; in this case the incoming X-rays scatter not merely from a top layer of atoms in the crystal but from numerous atomic planes. Furthermore, if the atomic planes are not parallel to the crystal surface the diffracted X-ray beam will be spread out prismatically into a range of component wavelengths (or colors).
In the Argonne experiment an incoming beam of 9-kiloelectronvolt X-ray photons with angular spread of only 1 micro-radian (two-tenths of an arcsecond) was backwards scattered and spread out into an X-ray rainbow with an angular dispersion of 230 micro-radians (see figure).
Argonne physicist Yuri Shvyd'ko (shvydko@aps.anl.gov, 630-252-2901) says that his rainbow is not just a novelty but will have many practical applications in X-ray optics. These include compression of X-ray pulses in time and the development of X-ray monochomators (which fashion X-ray beams of pure wavelength, or color) and much higher-resolution X-ray spectrometers.
Shvyd'ko et al., Physical Review Letters, 8 December 2006
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科学家将X射线细分出几种色彩
在1670年Isaac Newton将一束太阳光通过一个棱镜，该棱镜将光分成了彩虹的几种颜色，因此证明了自然光的组成；将一束单色光通过另一个棱镜（离得比较近）， Newton证明了该单色光通过棱镜并没有被加强，而是保持着该光的本身性质。现在物理学家在伊利诺斯州（美国州名）阿尔贡国立实验室使用了一种更加先进的光学仪器，将一束X射线（是一束更高能量的可见光）分成了彩虹的几种色彩。
从表面反射X射线是十分困难的，因为X射线的波长鼻可见光短10,000倍。一般只有十分之几的角度反射，甚至只能承受短波长的扩散。然而，另一个现象是布拉格衍射，就是分散的X射线从晶体的大角度扩散；这样射入的X射线不仅从晶体原子的最外层散射，而是晶体的很多层散射开去。此外，如果原子层不平行于晶体表面，X射线束就不会平行的分散开至一定组合波长的角度。
对阿尔贡国立实验室所做的实验，是用一束9千电子福特的X射线，光子的扩散角只有1微弧度的向后扩散并且X射线彩虹只有230微弧度的扩散角。
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