X-ray Microscopy

X-rays are not refracted by glass and cannot therefore be focussed by glass lenses, and because they are not electrically charged, neither can they be focussed with electromagnetic lenses. Rather, X-ray microscopes traditionally create images using lithographically fabricated “zone plates”, typically made of gold.

Synchrotrons are frequently used as X-ray sources because of the high intensity and high coherence of the X-ray beams that they can generate. Major applications of X-ray synchrotrons include protein and large-molecule crystallography and materials analysis.

The Phase Focus Virtual Lens® has been demonstrated at x-ray [1] wavelengths, and is becoming an important new method for high resolution imaging that can fill the “resolution gap” [2], between light microscopy and electron microscopy. The X-Ray Virtual Lens software is expected to overcome X-ray optics limitations to reach resolutions below 10 nm.