<title>Development and first applications of an imaging microscope using the Vulcan x-ray laser</title>

Abstract

An imaging microscope, comprising a Schwarzchild condenser and zone plate optical arrangement, has been established on the Vulcan Nd-glass laser system at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) .Images of simple test structures have been taken in X-ray transmission using doublet X-ray laser radiation at 23.2 nm and 23.6 nm from collisionally pumped Ne-like germanium.Image resolutions of about 0.15 im have been measured.The results are intended as a proof of principle and demonstrate both that images can be taken successfully using the Vulcan X-ray laser, and of specimen regions which are destroyed on passage of the X-ray beam.