A compact Schwarzschild soft X‐ray microscope with a laser‐produced plasma source

Summary A compact Schwarzschild soft X‐ray microscope using a laser‐produced plasma soft X‐ray source has been developed. The laser‐produced plasma source, which is small but of high brilliance, has made it possible to use the soft X‐ray microscope in a small laboratory. The microscope is composed of a Schwarzschild objective and a grazing incidence mirror condenser. Image contrast for biological specimens in soft X‐ray regions is investigated briefly. It is possible to observe the fine structures of a thin specimen at a wavelength of 15 nm; at this wavelength high‐contrast images of biological specimens have been obtained with a single laser shot of pulse width of 8 ns at a resolution of 0·3 μm. The resolution of the system is limited by the detector.