Performance and characterization of the prototype nm-scale spatial resolution scanning multilayer Laue lenses microscope

Synchrotron based x-ray microscopy established itself as a prominent tool for noninvasive investigations in many areas of science and technology. Many facilities around the world routinely achieve sub-micrometer resolution with a few instruments capable of imaging with the spatial resolution better than 100 nm. With an ongoing effort to push the 2D/3D resolution down to 10 nm in the hard x-ray regime both fabrication of the nano-focusing optics and stability of a microscope become extremely challenging. In this work we present our approach to overcome technical challenges on the path towards high spatial resolution hard x-ray microscopy and demonstrate the performance of a scanning fluorescence microscope equipped with the multilayer Laue lenses focusing optics. (C) 2013 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4774387]