Abstract
The point diffraction interferometer (PDI) is a simple self-referencing interferometer, designed here to measure the wavefront profile of a soft X-ray laser emitting at the wavelength of 21.2 nm. It is a monolithic device consisting of a thin filter and a very small pinhole (~1 μm), located near the axis of the X-ray laser focal spot. The foil material around the hole is semitransparent for the X-ray radiation of interest, acting like a neutral density filter. The small pinhole is a diffraction aperture and plays a spatial filtering role, generating spherical wave that acts a reference. The interferometric pattern is produced on a detector placed a few centimeters behind the foil. The beam wavefront profile is reconstructed from the information encoded in the pattern. In this paper we discuss the overall design of the PDI wavefront sensor setup, namely its geometry, fringe contrast, level of the detected signal, size of the pinhole, and candidate materials for the PDI foil.
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