Precise wavefront characterization of x-ray optical elements using a laboratory source.

Improvements in x-ray optics critically depend on the measurement of their optical performance. The knowledge of wavefront aberrations, for example, can be used to improve the fabrication of optical elements or to design phase correctors to compensate for these errors. At present, the characterization of such optics is made using intense x-ray sources, such as synchrotrons.

Analysis of X-ray multilayer Laue lenses made by masked deposition.

Multilayer Laue lenses are diffractive optics for hard X-rays. To achieve high numerical aperture and resolution, diffracting structures of nanometer periods are required in such lenses, and a thickness (in the direction of propagation) of several micrometers is needed for high diffracting efficiency. Such structures must be oriented to satisfy Bragg's law, which can only be achieved consistently over the entire lens if the layers vary in their tilt relative to the incident beam.

: a software suite for ptychographic X-ray speckle tracking.

In recent years, X-ray speckle-tracking techniques have emerged as viable tools for wavefront metrology and sample imaging applications. These methods are based on the measurement of near-field images. Thanks to their simple experimental setup, high angular sensitivity and compatibility with low-coherence sources, these methods have been actively developed for use with synchrotron and laboratory light sources.

Multilayer Laue lenses at high X-ray energies: performance and applications.

X-ray microscopy at photon energies above 15 keV is very attractive for the investigation of atomic and nanoscale properties of technologically relevant structural and bio materials. This method is limited by the quality of X-ray optics. Multilayer Laue lenses (MLLs) have the potential to make a major impact in this field because, as compared to other X-ray optics, they become more efficient and effective with increasing photon energy.

X-ray focusing with efficient high-NA multilayer Laue lenses.

Multilayer Laue lenses are volume diffraction elements for the efficient focusing of X-rays. With a new manufacturing technique that we introduced, it is possible to fabricate lenses of sufficiently high numerical aperture (NA) to achieve focal spot sizes below 10 nm. The alternating layers of the materials that form the lens must span a broad range of thicknesses on the nanometer scale to achieve the necessary range of X-ray deflection angles required to achieve a high NA.