Nanofocusing parabolic refractive x-ray lenses

Abstract

Parabolic refractive x-ray lenses with short focal distance can generate intensive hard x-ray microbeams with lateral extensions in the 100nm range even at short distance from a synchrotron radiation source. We have fabricated planar parabolic lenses made of silicon that have a focal distance in the range of a few millimeters at hard x-ray energies. In a crossed geometry, two lenses were used to generate a microbeam with a lateral size of 160nm by 115nm at 15.2keV at a distance of 47m from the synchrotron radiation source. First microdiffraction and fluorescence microtomography experiments were carried out with these lenses. Using diamond and boron as lens material, microbeams with lateral size down to 20nm and below are conceivable in the energy range from 10 to 100keV.