Soft x-ray source for nanostructure imaging using femtosecond-laser-irradiated clusters

The intense soft x-ray light source using the supersonic expansion of the mixed gas of He and CO2, when irradiated by a femtosecond Ti: sapphire laser pulse, is observed to enhance the radiation of soft x-rays from the CO2 clusters. Using this soft x-ray emissions, nanostructure images of 100-nm-thick Mo foils in a wide field of view (mm(2) scale) with high spatial resolution (800 nm) are obtained with high dynamic range LiF crystal detectors. The local inhomogeneities of soft x-ray absorption by the nanometer-thick foils is measured with an accuracy of less than +/- 3%. (C) 2008 American Institute of Physics.