A zone plate soft x-ray microscope using monochromatized undulator radiation at the beamline NE1B of the TRISTAN Accumulation Ring

A soft x-ray microscope has been developed at the beamline NE1B of the 6.5-GeV TRISTAN Accumulation Ring (AR). It makes use of undulator radiation as its source and a zone plate with the outermost zone width of 50 nm as its imaging element. It has two main features. First, the undulator radiation is monochromatized by a grazing incidence grating monochromator to match to the monochromaticity requirement of the zone plate. Second, a visible light prefocus unit consisting of two objectives has been designed and installed in the x-ray microscope. The x-ray optical system of the microscope can be adjusted easily, quickly, and precisely by using this unit. The microscope can resolve 55-nm lines and spaces in a zone plate test pattern