X-ray optics

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History of X-ray optics

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In the history of physics, X-rays are a quite recent discovery. Shortly after Conrad Röntgen had detected the first human made "X-Strahlen", X-rays where used for medical imaging purposes. Since then the number of applications and methods using X-rays have increased tremendously. The table below will give a short time table of the history of X-ray optics.

Date	Event	Names correlated	Where?
27.3.1845	Birth of Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen in Remscheid-Lennep	Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen	Remscheid-Lennep, Germany
5.11.1895	Discovery of X-rays in the late evening of Friday, 8. November 1895 in the former "Physikalischen Institut der Universität Würzburg". W. C. Röntgen called them "X-Strahlen".	W. C. Röntgen	Würzburg, Germany
28.12.1985	Application for publication of W. C. Röntgen: "Über eine neue Art von Strahlen" (On a New Kind of Rays) at the "Physikalisch-medizinische Gesellschaft Würzburg" (physical-medical association)	W. C. Röntgen	Würzburg, Germany
23.1.1896	First public talk of W. C. Röntgen invited by the "Physikalisch-medizinische Gesellschaft Würzburg" (physical-medical association) on "Über eine neue Art von Strahlen" (On a New Kind of Rays). At this convention the famous anatomist and privy councillor Rudolf Albert von Koelliker suggested to call X-rays "Roentgenstrahlen" (the term used in german language today).	W. C. Röntgen, R. A. von Koelliker	Würzburg, Germany
since 1896	Developement of water-cooled anodes for X-ray tubes by "C.H.F. Müller Röntgenwerk"	Carl Heinrich, Florenz Müller	Hamburg, Germany
1909	Barkla and Sadler discover characteristic X-ray radiation	Barkla, Sadler
1912	Discovery of the principle of X-ray diffraction by von Laue, Friedrich, and Knipping	Max von Laue, Friedrich and Knipping	Zurich, Swiss
1913	Henry Moseley establishes the relation between atomic number and the specific X-ray wavelength of elements (Moseley's law) which is the fundament of X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy	Henry Moseley	Manchester
1913	Bragg, father and son, build an X-ray spectrometer	Bragg
1914	Max von Laue receives the Nobel Prize for physics, for his discovery of the diffraction of X-rays on crystals	Max von Laue	Stockholm, Sweden
1914	The Nobel prize winner W. L. Bragg publishes his theoretical explanation of "The Diffraction of Short Electromagnetic Waves by a Crystal"	W. L. Bragg
1915	W. L. Bragg receives the Nobel Prize	W. L. Bragg	Stockholm, Sweden
1916	Siegbahn and Stenstrom observe X-ray emission satellites	Siegbahn, Stenstrom
1917	Barkla receives the Nobel Prize	Barkla	Stockholm, Sweden
1921	Wentzel observes two-electron excitations	Wentzel
1922	Meitner discovers Auger electrons	Meitner
1924	Lindh and Lundquist resolve chemical shifts	Lindh, Lundquist
1924	Siegbahn receives the Nobel Prize	Siegbahn	Stockholm, Sweden
1924-44?	Philips patents the safe Metalix tube, takes over Muller and concentrates tube manufacturing in Eindhoven and Hamburg.
1927	Coster and Druyvesteyn observe valence-core multiplets	Coster, Druyvesteyn
1931	Johann develops bent-crystal spectroscopy	Johann
1945-69?	In cooperation with the US Naval Research Laboratories, North American Philips develops the world's first commercial X-ray diffractometer, which is branded Norelco, soon to be followed by the well-known Philips PW1050 diffractometer.
1952	Hans Wolter designes an aplanatic system of grazing incidence mirrors satisfying the Abbe sine condition (i.e. free of both spherical aberration and coma) used in Wolter telescopes	Hans Wolter
1957-1970	Development of first prototypes of computer tomographs	Allan M. Cormack, Godfrey Hounsfield, A. Sasov et al	Tufts University, Massachusetts, USA; Hayes, UK; Moscow
1963	First rocket-borne telescope takes X-ray pictures of the sun.	John V. Lindsay et al	NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
1970-89?	Launch of the PW1400 family of XRF spectrometers, rapidly becoming the standard in the industry
1971	First computer tomographic image of a human	Godfrey Hounsfield
early 1970's	First orbiting X-ray telescope flies on Skylab and records over 35,000 full-disk images of the sun over a nine month period.
1975	The first successful X-ray image of an extra-solar object is obtained using a Kirkpatrick-Baez mirror coupled with an imaging proportional counter to obtain an image of the Virgo cluster of galaxies.	Paul Gorenstein et al	Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
1977	First use of Wolter optics for extra-solar astronomy	Saul Rappaport et al	MIT
1978	First orbiting X-ray telescope, the Einstein Observatory
1979	Nobel Prize (medicine) for Allan M. Cormack and Godfrey Hounsfield for the development of computer tomography		Stockholm, Sweden
1983-86	Use of "European Space Agency's X-ray Observatory" (EXOSAT)
1990-99	"Roentgen Satellite" (ROSAT) mission
1993-2001	"Advanced Satellite for Cosmology and Astrophysics" (ASCA): the first satellite using CCD-detectors for X-ray astronomy
1994	First soft X-ray scanning transmission microscope (STXM)	Haddad
1995	Herbert Göbel presents the so called Göbel mirrors at the Denver X-ray conference	Herbert Göbel	Denver
since 1999	"Chandra X-Ray Observatory" (CXO) in use