Two zone plate interference contrast microscopy at 4 keV photon energy

The setup and first successful tests of an interference contrast microscope operating at a photon energy of 4 keV (lambda = 0.31 nm) is described, The interference contrast microscope is based on the full-field X-ray microsco pe operating at the ID21 beamline at the European Synchrotran Radiation Fac ility with the difference that two zone plates are used for the image gener ation instead of one. One of the zone plate generates the X-ray image, both together accomplish the "common path" beam splitting. With a suited config uration, the interference pattern generated by the first orders of the two zone plates is superposed by the X-ray image. Polymer test objects were use d to detect phase shifts superposed to X-ray microscopy images employing th e interference contrast mode. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V, All rights res erved.