Compact water-window transmission X-ray microscopy

• We demonstrate sub-100 nm resolution water-window soft X-ray full-field transmission microscopy with a compact system. The microscope operates at lambda = 3.37 nm and is based on a 100 Hz table-top regenerative debris-free droplet-target laser-plasma X-ray source in combination with normal-incidence multilayer condenser optics for sample illumination. High-spatial-resolution imaging is performed with a 7.3% efficiency nickel zone plate and a 1024 x 1024 pixel CCD detector. Images of dry test samples are recorded with exposure times of a few minutes and show features smaller than 60 nm.

Keyword

compact

droplet target

laser plasma

multilayer optics

soft X-ray microscopy

water window

zone plate optics

droplet-target

zone-plate

ultrastructure

generation

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)