X-ray microscopy in the water window has become a valuable imaging tool for a wide field of applications with a resolution in the nanometer regime. The emergence and the development of laboratory based transmission X-ray microscopes (LTXM) can be of great benefit to users, since LTXM provides access to a method previously limited to synchrotron facilities only. In recent years, measuring times in the laboratory have been reduced to the point, where tomography of aqueous cryofixated samples has become feasible. We report on a laboratory full-field transmission X-ray microscope based on a laser induced plasma source located at the Berlin Laboratory for innovative X-ray Technologies. A short introduction on full-field X-ray microscopy in the water window is given. We demonstrate that, with a thin disk laser-system (TDL), which provides an average power of ~15 W a spatial resolution of Δx = 41 nm ± 3 nm (half-pitch) is feasible. An image of a diatom recorded at 15 W average laser power with a magnification of 1125x captured in 5 min is presented.

Date Published: 11 December 2012
PDF: 10 pages
Proc. SPIE 8678, Short-Wavelength Imaging and Spectroscopy Sources, 867808 (11 December 2012); doi: 10.1117/12.2011142

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 8678:
Short-Wavelength Imaging and Spectroscopy Sources
Davide Bleiner, Editor(s)