High Resolution Image Storage in Polymers

Abstract

The recent advances in soft X-ray microscopy have resulted in examples of high resolution images of biological materials which are significantly improved over earlier ones. The method with the highest resolution is the simplest one, namely microradiography. While directly magnifying X-ray microscopes or scanning X-ray microscopes have an inherent appeal to all microscopists, being exactly analogous in operation and application to other established microscopies, the contact imaging method has itself certain advantages which are already being exploited. For example, short exposure time images taken with pulsed sources will be necessary to freeze the mobile structures in wet or living biological cells. The serial recording method of the scanning microscope obviously will preclude its use in this application. The direct imaging microscope (using zone plates) utilizes only about 10% of the photons incident on the specimen to form the image. It is not clear that the extremely high dose rates necessary to image wet cells will not distort or destroy the imaging optical components such as the zone plate itself. In many instances of contact microradiography using pulsed sources, the specimen itself has been destroyed. The relative advantages of contact methods for this application are clear.KeywordsZone PlatePulse SourceIncident DoseMolecular Weight PMMAInherent AppealThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.