Soft x-ray microscopy with 7 nm resolution

Abstract

The availability of intense soft x-ray beams with tunable energy and polarization has pushed the development of highly sensitive, element-specific, and noninvasive microscopy techniques to investigate condensed matter with high spatial and temporal resolution. The short wavelengths of soft x-rays promise to reach spatial resolutions in the deep single-digit nanometer regime, providing unprecedented access to magnetic phenomena at fundamental length scales. Despite considerable efforts in soft x-ray microscopy techniques, a two-dimensional resolution of 10 nm has not yet been surpassed in direct imaging. Here, we report on a significant step beyond this long-standing limit by combining newly developed soft x-ray Fresnel zone plate lenses with advanced precision in scanning control and careful optical design. With this approach, we achieve an image resolution of 7 nm. By combining this highly precise microscopy technique with the x-ray magnetic circular dichroism effect, we reveal dimensionality effects in an ensemble of interacting magnetic nanoparticles. Such effects are topical in current nanomagnetism research and highlight the opportunities of highresolution soft x-ray microscopy in magnetism research and beyond.

X-ray Spectroptychography

“…The spatial resolution of zone plates depends on the ability to fabricate outer zones with narrow widths and high aspect ratio zones required for diffractive efficiency. The best X-ray optics technology can provide imaging with spatial resolution down to 7 nm, 4 although most STXM microscopes provide a spatial resolution of ∼35 nm. Zone plates that offer a spatial resolution below 15 nm have an extremely short working distance and have low efficiency, which makes them difficult to use for spectromicroscopy.…”

Scanning Transmission X-Ray Microscopy At The Canadian Light Source: Progress And Selected Applications In Geosciences

“…[7][8][9][10][11][12][13] Specifically, STXM elegantly integrates X-ray microscopy and absorption spectroscopy, providing multielemental chemical speciation and quantitative chemical imaging in 2D and 3D modes, identification of organic and inorganic components and their associations, and spatial correlation analysis of elements at high spatial resolution (sub-10 to 30 nm) and high spectral resolution (<0.05 eV). 12,14,15 In addition, ongoing instrumentation developments of STXM, particularly STXMptychography and in situ STXM, have achieved unprecedented sub-10 nm spatial resolution and real working environments for specimens. With the ground-breaking emergence of the 4 th generation diffraction-limited synchrotron sources (DLSR), the properties and quality of the X-ray beam in terms of coherence and brilliance will be extraordinarily improved, making STXM and its derived/associated techniques even more powerful.…”

A dielectric Kinoform zone plate with 15 nm resolution and high efficiency for soft X-ray optics

“…Atomic layer depositions (ALDs) of noble metals such as iridium (Ir) has come to the stage to form metallic zones on sidewalls of pre-replicated zone plate templates [14][15][16][17][18][19] . 10 nm and even sub-10 nm 19,20 zone-width (i.e. the thickness of ALD film) with desired aspect ratio have been frequently reported.…”