X-ray microscopy instrumentation developments at NSLS-II: recent progress and future directions

X-ray microscopy is a mature characterization tool routinely used to answer various questions of science, technology and engineering. The high penetration power of X-rays allows to utilize different characterization methods and reveal elemental composition, crystalline phases, strain distribution, oxidation states etc. in macroscopic and microscopic samples. To obtain comprehensive chemical and structural information at the nanometer scale an X-ray microscope must be equipped with adequate capabilities and allow acquisition of multiple datasets simultaneously. Full-field or scanning X-ray microscopes usually serve this purpose and complement each other. In the recent years, a number of X-ray microscopes have been designed, constructed and commissioned at NSLS-II. In this work we provide an overview of the microscopy instrumentation developments at NSLS-II. It includes the multilayer Laue Lens based nanoprobe optimized for 10 nm spatial resolution imaging, it’s current status and future upgrades; the zone plate based full-field imaging system capable of nano-tomography measurements in less than 1 minute; a laser scanning system optimized for ptychography measurements along with algorithms development, and a new Kirkpatrick-Baez based scanning microscope designed for sub-100 nm spatial resolution experiments.