Perfect X-ray focusing via fitting corrective glasses to aberrated optics

Area of Science:

• Optics and Photonics
• Materials Science
• X-ray Physics

Background:

• X-rays' short wavelength enables nanometer-scale focusing.
• Current X-ray optics and metrology face technological limitations.
• Achieving diffraction-limited performance in X-ray optics is challenging.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present a method for accurate at-wavelength measurement of X-ray lens aberrations.
• To manufacture a corrective phase plate for a refractive X-ray lens.
• To demonstrate diffraction-limited performance of corrected X-ray optics.

Main Methods:

• Utilized ptychography for precise aberration measurement of a refractive X-ray lens.
• Manufactured a custom phase plate based on measured aberrations.
• Evaluated the performance of the corrected X-ray optical system.

Main Results:

• Achieved diffraction-limited performance with the corrected X-ray lens.
• Generated a nearly Gaussian beam profile.
• Obtained a Strehl ratio exceeding 0.8, indicating high-quality focusing.

Conclusions:

• The developed ptychography-based scheme effectively corrects X-ray lens aberrations.
• This method enables diffraction-limited performance for X-ray focusing optics.
• The technique is applicable to various focusing optics at synchrotron radiation sources and X-ray free-electron lasers.