X-ray microscopy is continuing to make significant progress in two directions, through the use of advanced X-ray optical elements and through the combined use of coherent X-rays and image analysis. Currently, the typical spatial resolution available at major synchrotron radiation facilities is the order of tens of nm. Professor C. Schroer (Technische Universität Dresden, Germany) and his colleagues recently achieved the world record for spatial resolution in X-ray microscopy. The research group employed the coherent x-ray diffraction imaging technique and observed a single gold nanoparticle (size <100 nm) supported by a Si3N4 membrane with 15.25 keV photons, beam dimensions 100×100 nm2, and flux of more than 1E+8 counts/sec. The real-space gold image was reconstructed by the hybrid input-output (HIO) method together with the shrink-wrap algorithm. The resolution of 5 nm was achieved in 600 s exposure time. The present experiments were done at beamline ID13, ESRF, and a pair of refractive lenses was used to increase the coherent dose density. For more information, see the paper, "Coherent X-Ray Diffraction Imaging with Nanofocused Illumination", C. G. Schroer et al., Phys. Rev. Lett., 101, 090801 (2008).
