Wide-field-of-view phase-contrast imaging of nanostructures with a comparatively large polychromatic soft x-ray plasma source

Opt Lett. 2009 Nov 1;34(21):3268-70. doi: 10.1364/OL.34.003268.

Abstract

Polychromatic soft x-ray plasma sources were not previously considered to be among the sources suitable for the propagation based phase contrast imaging because of their comparatively large emission-zone size. In the current work a scheme based on the combination of soft x-ray emission of multicharged ions, generated by the interaction of femtosecond laser pulses with an ultrasonic jet of gas clusters, and an LiF crystal detector was used to obtain phase-enhanced high-resolution images of micro- and nanoscale objects in a wide field of view.