Supersampled Scanning Transmission X‐Ray Microscopy for High‐Resolution Vibration‐Independent Time‐Resolved Imaging

Scanning transmission x‐ray microscopy (STXM) is a nanoscale imaging technique that can utilize several powerful contrast mechanisms for the quantitative mapping of chemical and physical materials properties. Spatial resolutions down to 7 nm at the soft x‐ray energy range have been demonstrated. A limiting factor for high‐resolution STXM imaging is given by the positioning precision of the sample with respect to the focusing optic, with the current state‐of‐the‐art leading to significant overheads, especially at low pixel dwell times, and being vulnerable to unavoidable external vibration sources. In this work, we present a method called supersampled scanning microscopy that allows for a significant reduction of overhead times while simultaneously removing the effects of vibrational noise by sampling the position of the sample at a rate significantly higher than the vibration spectrum and reconstructing the sample transmission image from the recorded list of positions and detector counts. We demonstrate the performance of the technique with a set of proof‐of‐concept high‐resolution imaging experiments.