Channel Cut Crystals

Using a channel cut crystal is the simplest way of achieving a "double crystal" monochromator set up. Fabricating the "first" and "second" crystals from a single piece of silicon ensures parallelism between the refracting planes without the necessity of mechanisms to maintain the alignment.

The main disadvantage of channel cut crystals is that the beam position cannot be maintained during an energy scan. Bragg angle ranges are also limited by the length of the "second crystal" part.