High resolution hard x-ray microscope on a second generation synchrotron source

Abstract

A full-field, transmission x-ray microscope (TXM) operating in the energy range of 7-11 keV has been installed at the U7A beamline at the National Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory, a second generation synchrotron source operating at 0.8 GeV. Although the photon flux at sample position in the operating energy range is significantly low due to its relatively large emittance, the TXM can get high quality x-ray images with a spatial resolution down to 50 nm with acceptable exposure time. This TXM operates in either absorption or Zernike phase contrast mode with similar resolution. This TXM is a powerful analytical tool for a wide range of scientific areas, especially studies on nanoscale phenomena and structural imaging in biology, materials science, and environmental science. We present here the property of the x-ray source, beamline design, and the operation and key optical components of the x-ray TXM. Plans to improve the throughput of the TXM will be discussed.

The analysis of microscopy imaging on liquid crystalline components of the cell nucleus

“…The X-ray tomography experiments were carried out on the X-ray microscope beamline U7A at the National Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (NSRL) in Hefei, China [29]. The experimental setup includes a 6T superconducting wiggler as the X-ray source, a Si (111) double-crystal monochromator (with a photon energy range of 7 -12 KeV) to provide a monochromatic X-ray flux; a condenser with a focusing efficiency near 90%; and objective FZPs produced by electroplating gold onto a silicon nitride membrane with a 45 nm width in the outermost zone, which delivers a 52 μm field depth (at 8 KeV).…”

“…Among these X-ray microscopic techniques, X-ray diffraction microscopy (XDM) has achieved great success, which is a typical lensless phase contrast X-ray imaging technique using coherent X-ray light source commonly based on the third generation synchrotron radiation facility [17,23,27]. The zone plate based X-ray microscopy is another kind of frequently used X-ray imaging technique, which uses a zone plate as objective and a zone plate or axisymmetric hollow elliptically glass capillary as condenser [20,[28][29][30]. The zone plate based X-ray microscopy can directly get information in real space, but challenged by the difficulties of fabricating high efficiency and stable objective lenses(zone plates) [28,31].…”

The Best of Both Worlds: 3D X-ray Microscopy with Ultra-high Resolution and a Large Field of View

“…The samples were then spotted on a silicon nitride membrane of 100-nm thickness for mounting on the microscope sample holder. The tomography experiments were performed using the Xradia nanoXCT-S100 full-field transmission hard x-ray microscope (TXM), installed at beamline U7A of NSRL [6]. Operating at 8 keV and utilizing Zernike phase contrast, this TXM system has been demonstrated to effectively obtain 3D images of some low-absorbing specimens, such as stained yeasts with about sub-60-nm spatial resolution and 10-m FOV [18].…”

“…A typical FOV available for the highest resolution, such as in the Xradia nanoXCT-S100 at National Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (NSRL), Hefei, China, is about 10-15 m [6,[8][9]. These FOV limitations may not be optimal for some studies of larger samples, in which the volume of interest exceeds the volume available for a single scan.…”

“…During the past two decades, the development of advanced x-ray optical devices, such as Fresnel zone plates, coupled with the high brilliance of synchrotron x-ray sources, has vastly increased the resolution of x-ray imaging. Resolution for 2D imaging down to 12-30 nm has been recently reported [1][2][3][4]; meanwhile 3D resolution to 30-60 nm and below is also now widely available [5][6][7]. This nano-CT technique has demonstrated many advantages in studying the 3D structures of complex samples at various length scales and has satisfied applications in a wide range of fields, such as material science [8][9], cellular biology [10][11][12], solid oxide fuel cells [13][14], and environmental science [15][16][17].…”