Progress in Optical Reconstruction of Submicron X-Ray Holograms

We investigate the maximum resolution which can be obtained from x-ray holograms through optical reconstruction. This implies to reject paraxial approximations, i.e. to consider high numerical apertures, and to take into account the holographic aberrations. We determine first the limits to a perfectly corrected reconstruction, set by diffraction (in terms of numerical aperture and resolution). It is shown that the diffraction limit can be as good as λc/2.8, in a particular reconstruction configuration (λc: re-construction wavelength). Discussion of practical implementation suggests that λc/2.2 is reasonably feasible.