Compact water‐window transmission X‐ray microscopy

We demonstrate sub‐100 nm resolution water‐window soft X‐ray full‐field transmission microscopy with a compact system. The microscope operates at λ = 3.37 nm and is based on a 100 Hz table‐top regenerative debris‐free droplet‐target laser‐plasma X‐ray source in combination with normal‐incidence multilayer condenser optics for sample illumination. High‐spatial‐resolution imaging is performed with a 7.3% efficiency nickel zone plate and a 1024 × 1024 pixel CCD detector. Images of dry test samples are recorded with exposure times of a few minutes and show features smaller than 60 nm.

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