Abstract
Analytical tools that have spatial resolution at the nanometre scale are indispensable for the life and physical sciences. It is desirable that these tools also permit elemental and chemical identification on a scale of 10 nm or less, with large penetration depths. A variety of techniques1,2,3,4,5,6,7 in X-ray imaging are currently being developed that may provide these combined capabilities. Here we report the achievement of sub-15-nm spatial resolution with a soft X-ray microscope—and a clear path to below 10 nm—using an overlay technique for zone plate fabrication. The microscope covers a spectral range from a photon energy of 250 eV (∼5 nm wavelength) to 1.8 keV (∼0.7 nm), so that primary K and L atomic resonances of elements such as C, N, O, Al, Ti, Fe, Co and Ni can be probed. This X-ray microscopy technique is therefore suitable for a wide range of studies: biological imaging in the water window8,9; studies of wet environmental samples10,11; studies of magnetic nanostructures with both elemental and spin-orbit sensitivity12,13,14; studies that require viewing through thin windows, coatings or substrates (such as buried electronic devices in a silicon chip15); and three-dimensional imaging of cryogenically fixed biological cells9,16.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year
only $3.90 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Susini, J. & Joyeux, D. & Polack, F. (eds) X-Ray Microscopy VII (EDP Sciences, Paris, 2003)
Chao, W. et al. 20-nm-resolution soft x-ray microscopy demonstrated by use of multilayer test structures. Opt. Lett. 28, 2019–2021 (2003)
Kipp, L. et al. Sharper images by focusing soft X-rays with photon sieves. Nature 414, 184–188 (2001)
Eisebitt, S. et al. Lensless imaging of magnetic nanostructure by x-ray spectral-holography. Nature 432, 885–888 (2004)
Miao, J., Charalambous, P., Kirz, J. & Sayre, D. Extending the methodology of X-ray crystallography to allow imaging of micrometre-sized non-crystalline specimens. Nature 400, 342–344 (1999)
Miao, J. W. et al. Imaging whole Escherichia coli bacteria by using single-particle x-ray diffraction. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 100, 110–112 (2003)
Marchesini, S. et al. X-ray image reconstruction from a diffraction pattern alone. Phys. Rev. B 68, 140101–140104 (2003)
Meyer-Ilse, W. et al. High resolution protein localization using soft x-ray microscopy. J. Microsc. 201, 395–403 (2001)
Larabell, C. A. & Le Gros, M. A. X-ray tomography generates 3-D reconstructions of the yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, at 60-nm resolution. Mol. Biol. Cell 15, 957–962 (2003); movie at http://ncxt.lbl.gov/movies/video-seg8.mov
Myneni, S. C. B., Brown, J. T., Martinez, G. A. & Meyer-Ilse, W. Imaging of humic substance macromolecular structures in water and soils. Science 286, 1335–1337 (1999)
Juenger, M. C. G., Lamour, V. H. R., Monteiro, P. J. M., Gartner, E. M. & Denbeaux, G. P. Direct observation of cement hydration by soft X-ray transmission microscopy. J. Mater. Sci. Lett. 22, 1335–1337 (2003)
Fischer, P., Schutz, G., Schmahl, G., Guttmann, P. & Raasch, D. Imaging of magnetic domains with the X-ray microscope at BESSY using X-ray magnetic circular dichroism. Z. Phys. B 101, 313–316 (1996)
Fischer, P. et al. Study of magnetic domains by magnetic soft x-ray transmission microscopy. J. Phys. D 35, 2391–2397 (2002)
Stoll, H. et al. High-resolution imaging of fast magnetization dynamics in magnetic nanostructures. Appl. Phys. Lett. 84, 3328–3330 (2004)
Schneider, G. et al. Electromigration in passivated Cu interconnects studied by transmission x-ray microscopy. J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 20, 3089–3094 (2002)
Schneider, G. et al. Computed tomography of cryogenic cells. Surf. Rev. Lett. 9, 177–183 (2002)
Meyer-Ilse, W. et al. New high-resolution zone-plate microscope at Beamline 6.1 of the Advanced Light Source. Synchr. Radiat. News 8, 29–33 (1995)
Schmahl, G. & Rudolph, D. (eds) X-ray Microscopy (Springer, Berlin, 1984)
Anderson, E. H. et al. Nanofabrication and diffractive optics for high-resolution x-ray applications. J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 18, 2970–2975 (2000)
Attwood, D. T. Soft X-Rays and Extreme Ultraviolet Radiation (Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, UK, 2000)
Goodman, J. W. Statistical Optics 303–324 (Wiley, New York, 2000)
Born, M. & Wolf, E. Principles of Optics 7th edn, 441, 596–606 (Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, UK, 1999)
Toh, K. K. H. & Neureuther, A. R. Identifying and monitoring effects of lens aberrations in projection printing. Proc. SPIE 772, 202–209 (1987)
Anderson, E. H., Boegli, V. & Muray, L. P. Electron beam lithography digital pattern generator and electronics for generalized curvilinear structures. J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 13, 2529–2534 (1995)
Anderson, E. H., Ha, D. & Liddle, J. A. Sub-pixel alignment for direct-write electron beam lithography. Microelectron. Eng. 73–74, 74–79 (2004)
Chao, W. et al. Demonstration of 20 nm half-pitch spatial resolution with soft x-ray microscopy. J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 21, 3108–3111 (2003)
Yasin, S., Hasko, D. G. & Ahmed, H. Fabrication of <5 nm width lines in poly(methylmethacrylate) resist using a water:isopropyl alcohol developer and ultrasonically-assisted development. Appl. Phys. Lett. 78, 2760–2762 (2001)
Di Fabrizio, E. et al. High-efficiency multilevel zone plates for keV X-rays. Nature 401, 895–898 (1999)
Vogt, U. et al. High-resolution spatial characterization of laser produced plasmas at soft x-ray wavelengths. Appl. Phys. B 78, 53–58 (2004)
Gibson, E. A. et al. Coherent soft x-ray generation in the water window with quasi-phase matching. Science 302, 95–98 (2003)
Larotonda, M. A. et al. Characteristics of a saturated 18.9 nm table top laser operating at 5 Hz repetition rate. IEEE J. Select. Topics Quant. Electron. 10, 1363–1367 (2004)
Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge financial support from the National Science Foundation's Engineering Research Centre Program, the Department of Energy's Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
Reprints and permissions information is available at npg.nature.com/reprintsandpermissions. The authors declare no competing financial interests.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Chao, W., Harteneck, B., Liddle, J. et al. Soft X-ray microscopy at a spatial resolution better than 15 nm. Nature 435, 1210–1213 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature03719
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature03719
This article is cited by
-
Ultracompact mirror device for forming 20-nm achromatic soft-X-ray focus toward multimodal and multicolor nanoanalyses
Nature Communications (2024)
-
Characterization of just one atom using synchrotron X-rays
Nature (2023)
-
Indirect Measurement Methods for Quality and Process Control in Nanomanufacturing
Nanomanufacturing and Metrology (2022)
-
Nondestructive Methods for the Quality Assessment of Fruits and Vegetables Considering Their Physical and Biological Variability
Food Engineering Reviews (2022)
-
Advances and insights in the diagnosis of viral infections
Journal of Nanobiotechnology (2021)
Comments
By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.