Transmission and emission x-ray microscopy: operation modes, contrast mechanisms and applications

Abstract

Advances in microscopy techniques based on x-rays have opened unprecedented opportunities in terms of spatial resolution, combined with chemical and morphology sensitivity, to analyze solid, soft and liquid matter. The advent of ultrabright third and fourth generation photon sources and the continuous development of x-ray optics and detectors has pushed the limits of imaging and spectroscopic analysis to structures as small as a few tens of nanometers. Specific interactions of x-rays with matter provide elemental and chemical sensitivity that have made x-ray spectromicroscopy techniques a very attractive tool, complementary to other microscopies, for characterization in all actual research fields. The x-ray penetration power meets the demand to examine samples too thick for electron microscopes implementing 3D imaging and recently also 4D imaging which adds time resolution as well. Implementation of a variety of phase contrast techniques enhances the structural sensitivity, especially for the hard x-ray regime. Implementation of lensless or diffraction imaging helps to enhance the lateral resolution of x-ray imaging to the wavelength dependent diffraction limit.

X-ray Microscopy and Microtomography

“…There is a specialized International Conference on Xray Microscopy that is held every two years, with the most recent one held in Shanghai in August 2012. Several review articles provide an overview of the field [1][2][3][4][5].…”

Combining multiple imaging techniques at the TwinMic X-ray microscopy beamline

“…X-ray microscopes can in general be classified into three types: projection imaging, full-field microscopes and scanning ones (1). Projection imaging can be defined as real space lensless imaging, where the illuminated sample area, produced by a small diameter X-ray source, is projected onto a suitable detector: pixel-array or film.…”

Optical design and multi-length-scale scanning spectro-microscopy possibilities at the Nanoscopium beamline of Synchrotron Soleil

“…Advanced scanning hard X-ray nanoprobe techniques provide powerful tools for probing heterogeneous complex systems down to the nanometre-scale with high elemental and structural sensitivity (Holt et al, 2013;Kaulich et al, 2011;Martinez-Criado et al, 2014;Vogt & Lanzirotti, 2013). In recent years significant progress has been reported in the development of focusing optics (Boye et al, 2009;Koyama et al, 2012;Krü ger et al, 2012;Mimura et al, 2009;Yan et al, 2011;Vila-Comamala et al, 2011;Mohacsi et al, 2014), sample positioning (Holler et al, 2012(Holler et al, , 2014Nazaretski et al, 2013Nazaretski et al, , 2015, detector technology (Johnson et al, 2012;Medjoubi et al, 2013;Ryan et al, 2009) and imaging methodologies (Hornberger et al, 2008;Menzel et al, 2010;Thibault & Menzel, 2013).…”