Efficient focusing of hard x rays to 25 nm by a total reflection mirror

Nanofocused x rays are indispensable because they can provide high spatial resolution and high sensitivity for x-ray nanoscopy/spectroscopy. A focusing system using total reflection mirrors is one of the most promising methods for producing nanofocused x rays due to its high efficiency and energy-tunable focusing. The authors have developed a fabrication system for hard x-ray mirrors by developing elastic emission machining, microstitching interferometry, and relative angle determinable stitching interferometry. By using an ultraprecisely figured mirror, they realized hard x-ray line focusing with a beam width of 25 nm at 15 keV. The focusing test was performed at the 1-km-long beamline of SPring-8. (c) 2007 American Institute of Physics.