Development of a Mirror Manipulator for Hard X-ray Microscopy with High Resolution

-Realization of Nanofocused Hard X-ray Beam Better than 50nm under Diffraction Limited Condition-

Abstract

To develop hard X-ray microscopy with high spatial resolution, development of focusing optical system is the most important. Kirkpatrick and Baez mirrors are promising focusing devices for X-ray due to their capability of highly efficient and energy-tunable focusing. However, it is difficult to adjust the alignment of two mirrors precisely in a short time because the mirrors have a multi-degree-of-freedom that should be adjusted. To align mirrors precisely and rapidly, relationships between mirror-positioning errors and focal sizes were investigated using two types of simulators: a ray-trace simulator and a wave-optical simulator. On the basis of the results, a mirror manipulator was developed achieving optimum K-B mirrors setup. Using the manipulator, hard-X-ray diffraction- limited focusing was realized with a size less than 50nm at 15keV at 1km long beamline of SPring-8.