A program of experimental physics research that will establish a new technology of light-element fluorescence analysis as the basis for improved industrial process-control quantitative analysis is proposed. A successful Phase I project provided evidence that powerful and efficient techniques for the x-ray fluorescence analysis of low atomic-number elements are now made feasible by an innovative wavelength-dispersive optical component known as the Layered Synthetic Microstructure (LSM). Large-aperture figured LSM x-ray optical components will enhance light-element fluorescence signal levels, by collection and focussing of fluorescent radiation, and will provide effective wavelength discrimination against continuum background radiation and competing characteristic emissions. The challenges of Phase II research are to develop techniques for construction of optimum LSM superlattice structures, to perfect methods for supersmoothing of figured optic substrates, and to evaluate experimentally the analysis precision, reproducibility and rapidity provided by the innovation technology.
