Efficient alignment scheme for zone-plates-based transmission soft X-ray microscope

Abstract

Alignment and operation of a zone-plate (ZP)-based transmission soft X-ray microscope (DM) is difficult and time consuming especially when the TXM has no dedicated X-ray source We introduce here an efficient TXM alignment scheme The TXM employed is a simple in-situ-experiment-capable setup It includes ultrahigh-vacuum (UHV)-compatible conflat flanges and is mountable in tandem with any soft X-ray synchrotron radiation beamlines Obtaining zeroth- and first-order diffracted (condenser-zone-plate [CZP]-focused) beams simultaneously by means of the objective zone plate (OZP) is the most essential step in the alignment scheme We were able to acquire in one hour at a radiation wavelength of 2 49 nm an image of 50 nm spatial resolution (C) 2010 Elsevier B V All rights reserved