Soft‐X‐Ray Microscopes

AUG 01, 1985

Major developments in sources, optics and detectors for soft x rays promise to help biologists realize the longstanding goal of high‐resolution imaging of biological materials in their natural, even living, state.

DOI: 10.1063/1.880983

Malcolm Howells

Janos Kirz

David Sayre

Günter Schmahl

Biologists have long dreamed of a microscope capable of imaging specimens in their natural state, at molecular or near‐molecular resolution. Physicists have for some years known that the soft‐x‐ray photon has properties that suit it for use as a probe in such microscopy. With the advent of synchrotron radiation sources, and with other technical advances, the difficulties that impeded the development of soft‐x‐ray microscopy have begun to give way, and in 1983 the technique produced the first images ever obtained of a living cell at a near‐molecular resolution of 75 Å.

References

1. The most useful current reference to the subject is G. Schmahl, D. Rudolph, eds., X‐Ray Microscopy, Springer‐Verlag, Berlin (1984).
This book contains descriptions of the systems in table 1: See D. Rudolph, B. Niemann, G. Schmahl, O. Christ, p. 192;
P. J. Duke, p. 232;
H. Rarback, J. M. Kenney, J. Kirz, M. R. Howells, P. Chang, P. J. Coane, R. Feder, P. J. Houzego, D. P. Kern, D. Sayre, p. 203;
B. Niemann, p. 217;
P. J. Duke, p. 232;
E. Spiller, p. 226;
A. Franks, B. Gale, p. 129;
F. Polack, S. Lowenthal, p. 251;
R. Feder, V. Mayne‐Banton, D. Sayre, J. Costa, B. K. Kim, M. G. Baldini, P. G. Cheng, p. 279.
See also S. Aoki, Y. Sakanayagi in Ultrasoft X‐Ray Microscopy, D. F. Parsuns, ed., Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. 342, 158 (1980). The resolution for the Tsukuba instrument cited in table 1 is from a recent personal communication from S. Aoki.https://doi.org/ANYAA9
2. G. Schmahl, D. Rudolph, P. Guttmann, O. Christ, in G. Schmahl, D. Rudolph, eds., X‐Ray Microscopy, Springer‐Verlag, Berlin (1984) p. 63;
P. Guttmann, p. 75;
J. Thieme, p. 91.
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4. G. Schmahl, D. Rudolph, B. Niemann in Scanned Image Microscopy, E. A. Ash, ed., Academic, New York (1980) p. 393;
W. B. Yun, M. R. Howells, Brookhaven Laboratory Technical Report No. 35628, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Brookhaven, New York (1985).
5. D. Rudolph, B. Niemann, G. Schmahl in High Resolution Soft X‐Ray Optics, E. Spiller, ed., SPIE Proc. 316, 103 (1981).https://doi.org/PSISDG
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D. L. Matthews, P. L. Hagelstein, M. D. Rosen, M. J. Eckart, N. M. Ceglio, A. U. Hazi, H. Medecki, B. J. MacGowan, J. E. Trebes, B. L. Whitten, E. M. Campbell, C. W. Hatcher, A. M. Hawryluk, R. L. Kauffman, L. D. Pleasance, G. Rambach, J. H. Scofield, G. Stone, T. A. Weaver, Phys. Rev. Lett. 54, 110 (1985).https://doi.org/PRLTAO
13. D. J. Nagel, in Ultraviolet and Vacuum Ultraviolet Systems, W. R. Hunter, ed., SPIE Proc. 279, 98 (1981). https://doi.org/PSISDG
Pulsed radiation sources based on the plasma z‐pinch are commercially available from Maxwell Laboratories in San Diego, Calif., and Physics International Co in San Leandro, Calif. Small sources based on laser‐produced plasmas are available from XMR Inc in Santa Clara, Calif.
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M. R. Howells, M. Iarocci, J. Kenney, J. Kirz, H. Rarback, in Science with Soft X‐Rays, F. J. Himpsel, R. W. Klaffky, eds., SPIE Proc. 447, 193 (1983).https://doi.org/PSISDG
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17. This possibility was discussed in D. Sayre, R.‐P. Haelbich, J. Kirz, W. B. Yun, in G. Schmahl, D. Rudolph, eds., X‐ray Microscopy, Springer‐Verlag, Berlin (1984) p. 314.
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More about the Authors

Malcolm Howells. Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory.

Janos Kirz. State University of New York, Stony Brook.

David Sayre. IBM Research Center, Yorktown Heights, New York.

Günter Schmahl. University of Göttingen, West Germany.