PHASE-CONTRAST HARD X-RAY MICROSCOPY WITH SUBMICRON RESOLUTION

In this letter we present a hard x-ray phase contrast microscope based on the divergent and coherent beam exiting an x-ray waveguide. It use s lensless geometrical projection to magnify spatial variations in opt ical path length more than 700 times, Images of a nylon fiber and a go ld test pattern were obtained with a resolution of 0.14 mu m in one di rection. Exposure times as short as 0.1 s gave already visible contras t, opening the way to high resolution, real time studies. (C) 1997 Ame rican Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951(97)01544-1].