Biological imaging with a neutron microscope

Abstract

A simple microscope employing a compound refractive lens (CRL) composed of 100 biconcave lenses was used to image a biological sample with a 9.4× magnification using 10Å cold neutrons. The microscope’s resolution, 0.5mm, was primarily determined by the neutron detector 5.0mm pixel size. Unlike previous work the CRL’s field of view was large (44mm) and increased as the distance between the exit of neutron-waveguide and the specimen decreased. Short source-to-specimen distances allowed the 1.2-cm-diam CRL to view a biological sample with this field of view.