Soft x-ray microscopy with a 182-angstrom soft x-ray laser

The high brightness and short pulse duration of soft x-ray lasers provide unique advantages for x-ray microscopy. We briefly review soft x-ray laser development at Princeton University and present results from the development of novel soft x-ray microscopes. The Princeton soft x- ray laser at 18.2 nm has been used to record high resolution contact images of biological specimens. More recently we have demonstrated proof-of-principle of reflection imaging in the soft x-ray wavelength range with the first results from a soft x-ray reflection imaging microscope. The microscope used a Schwarzschild objective with Mo/Si multilayer mirrors (normal incidence reflectivity of approximately 20% per surface) to form an image in reflected 18.2 nm soft x rays. In a separate experiment a novel `diffraction plate,' designed as an alternative to conventional condenser optics, has been tested.© (1993) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.