Full-field transmission X-ray microscopy (TXM) is a powerful, non-destructive technique for nanoscale imaging. It delivers significantly higher spatial resolution than visible light microscopy while enabling the inspection of thick samples that electron microscopy cannot penetrate. By bridging this gap, TXM drives critical advancements across diverse scientific fields, from mapping the internal degradation of energy materials to imaging intact biological cells.
In synchrotron facilities, TXM leverages high-flux, monochromatic X-ray beams to achieve spatial resolutions down to 30 nm and below in just a matter of minutes. Translating this exceptional performance to a conventional laboratory setup, however, remains a major challenge. X-ray imaging laboratory setups rely on X-ray tubes, which suffer from inherently low brightness and a have broad, polychromatic spectrum—factors that drastically limit the performance of laboratory TXM.
To overcome these limitations, we introduce a novel laboratory TXM instrument that integrates a microfocus X-ray source with a multilayer Montel mirror, high-resolution Fresnel zone plates and a charge-integrating hybrid pixel detector (MÖNCH). The Montel mirror monochromatizes and efficiently delivers the X-ray illumination to the sample. Crucially, its numerical aperture is precisely matched to Fresnel zone plate with 25 nm outermost zone width, which unlocks the high spatial resolution. A central innovation of our work is the replacement of traditional scintillator-based indirect detection schemes with a direct conversion hybrid pixel detector featuring higher detective quantum efficiency. This transition is enabled by the uniquely small pixel size of the MÖNCH detector (25 µm) and its interpolation capabilities arising from charge-sharing between contiguous pixels when an X-ray photon is detected. By pairing our tailored TXM design with the advanced interpolation of the MÖNCH detector, we successfully achieved a spatial resolution of 34 nm. This work represents a significant advancement in laboratory-based TXM, bringing nanoscale X-ray imaging in laboratory and industrial environments closer to synchrotron-level performance.
####################
Contact
Dr. Joan Vila-Comamala
PSI Centert for Photon Science
Paul Scherrer Institut PSI
Original publication
Qu D, Jiang W, Chen H-Y et al.
Pushing the limits of high-resolution laboratory full-field transmission X-ray microscopy
Optica Vol. 13, Issue 6, pp. 1165-1173 (2026)
https://doi.org/10.1364/OPTICA.584801
###################