Reflective Optics for Hard X-ray Nanofocusing Applications at the ESRF

The advent of high-brightness X-ray light sources has provided the impetus for the development of focusing systems capable of yielding spatially resolved information from samples at length scales below 10 nm. Beams of such dimensions are fundamental elements in a range of instruments providing powerful analytical tools for a broad range of scientific domains including life, materials, chemical, environmental, and physical sciences. At the ESRF, particular efforts have been made towards the design and implementation of reflective optical systems capable of routine nanoprobe formation at hard X-ray wavelengths (0.1 nm and below) with resolutions in the sub-50 nm range. Often, one of the principal driving forces for the use of such systems is the capacity of reflective optics to deliver very high photon fluxes to the sample. For imaging applications at the ESRF, monochromatic photon fluxes in excess of 108ph/s/nm2 are achievable at energies above 15keV—typically 1–2 orders of magnitude greater than accessibl...