Compact water-window transmission X-ray microscopy

We demonstrate sub-100 nm resolution water-window soft X-ray full-field transmission microscopy with a compact system. The microscope operates at λ = 3.37 nm and is based on a 100 Hz table-top regenerative debris-free droplet-target laser-plasma X-ray source in combination with normal-incidence multilayer condenser optics for sample illumination. High-spatial-resolution imaging is performed with a 7.3% efficiency nickel zone plate and a 1024 × 1024 pixel CCD detector. Images of dry test samples are recorded with exposure times of a few minutes and show features smaller than 60 nm.