Angle dispersive x-ray spectrometer

A method for measuring electron density in a lipid layer, comprising:

• providing an x-ray source comprising an x-ray source, a curved crystal monochromator which focuses a monochromatic x-ray beam onto a sample surface, the curved monochromator comprising the shape of a logarithmic spiral and having a width that is tapered along the arclength s of the crystal, and a position-sensitive x-ray detector;
• providing a sample comprising a single of multilamellar lipid layer deposited on a flat substrate;
• and
• exposing the sampler to the focused x-ray beam of the x-ray spectrometer.

A method of measuring diffraction intensities from oriented samples in real time, comprising;

• providing an x-ray spectrometer comprising an x-ray source, a curved crystal monochromator which focuses a monochromatic x-ray beam onto a sample surface, the curved monochromator comprising the shape of a logarithmic spiral and having a width that is tapered along the arclength s of the crystal, and a position-sensitive x-ray detector;
• and
• providing a crystallographically oriented sample;
• exposing the sample to the focused beam of the x-ray spectrometer;
• and
• measuring the diffraction intensity at the position-sensitive detector.