Aberration correction for hard x-ray focusing at the nanoscale

Abstract

We developed a corrective phase plate that enables the correction of residual aberration in reflective, diffractive, and refractive X-ray optics. The principle is demonstrated on a stack of beryllium compound refractive lenses with a numerical aperture of 0.49 × 10 −3 at three different synchrotron radiation and x-ray free-electron laser facilities. By introducing this phase plate into the beam path, we were able to correct the spherical aberration of the optical system and improve the Strehl ratio of the optics from 0.29(7) to 0.87(5), creating a diffraction-limited, large aperture, nanofocusing optics that is radiation resistant and very compact.