Nanotomography using parabolic refractive x-ray lenses

In recent years, hard x-ray full field microscopy and tomography has been developed for synchrotron radiation sources based on parabolic refractive x-ray lenses. These optics are used as objective lens in a hard x-ray microscope that can image objects in transmission free of distortion. Using beryllium as lens material, an optical resolution of about 100nm has been reached in a field of view that is larger than 500 micrometers. In the future, the spatial resolution may be improved to below 50nm. Recording a large number of micrographs from different perspectives allows one to reconstruct non-destructively the 3-dimensional inner structure of an object with resolutions well below one micrometer. Different contrast mechanisms can be exploited, such as absorption and near field phase contrast. The method is demonstrated using a microchip as a test sample.