Diffractive imaging of highly focused X-ray fields

Abstract

The rapid development of new sources of coherent X-rays, such as third-generation synchrotrons, high-harmonic-generation lasers1 and X-ray free-electron lasers2, has led to the emergence of the new field of X-ray coherent science. The extension of coherent methods to the X-ray regime makes possible methods such as coherent diffraction, X-ray photon-correlation spectroscopy, speckle interferometry and ultrafast probing at atomic resolution and femtosecond timescales. Despite rapid improvements in the resolution that conventional X-ray optics can achieve, new methods for manipulating X-rays are required to push this to the atomic scale3. Here we demonstrate a coherent imaging technique that enables us to image the complex field at the focus of an X-ray zone plate without the need for conventional X-ray lenses. There are no fundamental limits on the resolution of this lensless imaging technique other than the wavelength of the X-rays themselves. The ability to characterize the beam with one measurement makes the method ideally suited to characterizing the fields generated by pulsed coherent X-ray sources.

Cite this article

Quiney, H., Peele, A., Cai, Z. et al. Diffractive imaging of highly focused X-ray fields. Nature Phys 2, 101–104 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys218

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