Exploring spectroscopic X-ray nano-imaging with Zernike phase contrast enhancement

Spectroscopic full-field transmission X-ray microscopy (TXM-XANES), which offers electrochemical imaging with a spatial resolution of tens of nanometers, is an extensively used unique technique in battery research. However, absorption-based bright-field imaging has poor detection sensitivity for nanoscale applications. Here, to improve the sensitivity, we explored spectroscopic X-ray nano imaging with Zernike phase contrast (ZPC-XANES). A pinhole-type Zernike phase plate, which was optimized for high-contrast images with minimal artifacts, was used in this study. When the absorption is weak, the Zernike phase contrast improves the signal-to-noise ratio and the contrast of images at all energies, which induces the enhancement of the absorption edge step. We estimated that the absorption of the samples should be higher than 2.2% for reliable spectroscopic nano-imaging based on XANES spectroscopy analysis of a custom-made copper wedge sample. We also determined that there is a slight absorption peak shift and sharpening in a small absorption sample due to the inflection point of the refractive index at the absorption edge. Nevertheless, in the case of sub-micron sized cathode materials, we believe that better contrast and higher resolution spectroscopic images can be obtained using ZPC-XANES.