B14-O-04X-Ray Microscopy and Microtomography at SPring-8

Abstract

X-ray microscopy and microtomography have been continuously developed to realize two-/three-dimensional microimaging with a spatial resolution beyond the optical microscopy. Scanning microscopy and imaging microscopy using a Fresnel zone plate (FZP) as an x-ray optical device have been achieved the spatial resolution of better than 100 nm, and high-resolution computed tomography (CT) using such x-ray optical systems are now routinely available with the spatial resolution of better then 200 nm. Figure 1 shows the x-ray CT image of the asteroid “Itokawa” sample recovered by the spacecraft “Hayabusa”[1]. A phase-contrast x-ray imaging has also been developed. In the x-ray region, sensitivity of the phase-contrast imaging is about 1000 times higher at most for the low-Z materials than that of the absorption contrast imaging. Therefore, the phase-contrast microscope CT is frequently used for the biological samples and organic. Figure 2 shows the phase contrast x-ray CT image of human hair [2]. A novel system combining the scanning microscope and the imaging microscope has been developed for the purpose of a 3D multimodal imaging of the phase and absorption contrast x-ray imaging. In the conference, present status and some applications of x-ray microscopy at the SPring-8 public beamlines will be presented. [1] A. Tsuchiyama et al, Science 333 (2011) 1125-1128. [2] A. Takeuchi et al, AIP Conf. Proc. 1266 (2010) 42-46. Fig. 1. CT image of