In situ fine tuning of bendable soft x-ray mirrors using a lateral shearing interferometer

Abstract Broadly applicable, in situ at-wavelength metrology methods for x-ray optics are currently under development at the Advanced Light Source. We demonstrate the use of quantitative wavefront feedback from a lateral shearing interferometer for the suppression of aberrations. With the high sensitivity provided by the interferometer we were able to optimally tune the bending couples of a single elliptical mirror (NA=2.7 mrad) in order to focus a beam of soft x-rays (1.24 keV) to a nearly diffraction-limited beam waist size of 156 ( ± 10 ) nm .