System and method for bending crystal wafers for use in high resolution analyzers

1. A method for fabricating radiation analyzers, the method comprising:

a) providing a radiation manipulation material on a first surface of a flexible support;

b) contacting a second surface of the support to a permeable mold, wherein the mold has a first support contact surface and a second surface; and

c) applying negative pressure to the second side of the support to cause the radiation manipulation material to reversibly conform to the first support contact surface of the mold.

2. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the step of applying negative pressure to the second side of the support comprises subjecting substantially the entire second surface of the mold to a vacuum.

3. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the first support contact surface of the permeable mold defines a topography selected from the group consisting of a sphere, a cylinder, an ellipsoid, a paraboloid and combinations thereof.

4. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the permeable mold is a rigid material selected from the group consisting of aluminum, glass, ceramic, and combinations thereof.

5. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the radiation manipulating material comprises crystalline material selected from the group consisting of quartz, germanium, silicon, sapphire, and combinations thereof.

6. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the radiation manipulating material comprises non-crystalline material selected from the group consisting of metal, glass, polymer, and combinations thereof.

7. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the radiation manipulating material modifies incident radiation beams, the radiation selected from the group consisting of X-rays, photons, electrons, gamma rays, visible light, UV radiation, IR radiation, and combinations thereof.

8. A system for fabricating analyzers, the system comprising

a) radiation manipulating material positioned upon a flexible support;

b) a porous mold reversibly contacting the flexible support, wherein the mold defines a topography; and

c) a negative pressure applied to the flexible support to cause the radiation manipulating material to reversibly conform to the topography.

9. The system as recited in claim 8 wherein the topography has a shape selected from the group consisting of a sphere, an ellipsis, a cylinder, a flat plane, a paraboloid and combinations thereof.

10. The system as recited in claim 8 wherein transverse extending pores are homogeneously distributed throughout the porous mold.

11. The system as recited in claim 8 wherein the radiation reflecting material is crystalline material selected from the group consisting of quartz, silicon, germanium, sapphire, and combinations thereof.

12. The system as recited in claim 8 wherein the radiation reflecting material is noncrystalline material selected from the group consisting of glass, metal, ceramic, polymer, and combinations thereof.

13. The system as recited in claim 8 wherein the negative pressure ranges from 10 −2 mBar to 10 −6 mBar.

14. The system as recited in claim 8 wherein the flexible support is positioned between the radiation reflecting material and the porous mold and the flexible support is nonporous such that the negative pressure is not in fluid communication with the radiation reflecting material.

15. The system as recited in claim 8 wherein the negative pressure is an applied vacuum.

16. The system as recited in claim 8 wherein the analyzer is adapted to resolve radiation energies between 1 meV and 1000 meV.

17. A system for fabricating analyzers, the system comprising

a) radiation manipulating material positioned upon a flexible support;

b) a porous mold reversibly contacting the flexible support, wherein the mold defines a topography; and

c) a negative pressure applied to the flexible support to cause radiation reflecting material to conform to the topography, wherein the porous mold is a rigid material selected from the group consisting of metal, glass, plastic, ceramic and combinations thereof and has apertures ranging from 5 microns to 25 microns.

18. The system as recited in claim 8 wherein the negative pressure is applied via a vacuum pump.

19. The system as recited in claim 18 wherein the vacuum pump is disconnected from the system.

20. The system as recited in claim 8 wherein the porous mold has a radius of curvature ranging from 10 mm to infinity.

21. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the radiation manipulation material comprises a plurality of individual crystals, wherein each of the crystals define a six sided shape having side surfaces opposing adjacent crystals, a upwardly facing surface, and a downwardly facing surface contacting the support substrate.

22. The system as recited in claim 8 wherein the radiation manipulation material comprises a plurality of individual crystals, wherein each of the crystals define a six sided shape having side surfaces opposing adjacent crystals, a upwardly facing surface, and a downwardly facing surface contacting the support substrate.