First Images from the Stanford Tabletop Scanning Soft X-Ray Microscope

Abstract

We have constructed a scanning soft x-ray microscope which uses a laser-produced plasma as the soft x-ray source and normal incidence multilayer coated mirrors in a Schwarzschild configuration as the focusing optics. The microscope operates at a wavelength of 140 Å, has a spatial resolution of 0.5 μm, and has a soft x-ray photon flux through the focus of 104 s-1 when operated with only 170 mW of average laser power. The microscope is compact; the complete system, including the laser, fits on a single optical table. In this paper we describe the microscope and present images of metallic microstructures.