A compact soft x-ray microscope for high resolution hydrated cell imaging

Abstract

In this presentation, the development of compact transmission soft x-ray microscopy (XM) as a imaging tool for sub-50nm spatial resolution hydrated cell imaging is described. The compact transmission soft x-ray microscope operates at λ = 2.88 nm (430eV) and is based on a tabletop regenerative x-ray source in combination with tandem ellipsoidal condenser mirror (TECM) for sample illumination, objective micro zone plate (OZP) and thinned back-illuminated charge coupled device (CCD) to record an x-ray image. The spectral resolution of illumination soft x-ray has been shown to be E/□E=1000. The new, compact x-ray microscope system requires the fabrication of proper x-ray optical devices in order to obatain high-quality images. For an application-oriented microscope, the alignment procedure is fully-automated via computer control through a graphic user interface. On imaging studies using our compact XM system, the gold mesh image was obtained with 45 nm resolution at ×580 magnification and 1 minute exposure. The images of the biological sample were recorded.