3D nanoscale imaging of biological samples with laboratory-based soft X-ray sources

Aurélie Dehlinger; Anne Blechschmidt; Daniel Grötzsch; Robert Jung; Birgit Kanngießer; Christian Seim; Holger Stiel

doi:10.1117/12.2188324

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22 September 2015 3D nanoscale imaging of biological samples with laboratory-based soft X-ray sources

Aurélie Dehlinger, Anne Blechschmidt, Daniel Grötzsch, Robert Jung, Birgit Kanngießer, Christian Seim, Holger Stiel

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Proceedings Volume 9589, X-Ray Lasers and Coherent X-Ray Sources: Development and Applications XI; 95890M (2015) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2188324
Event: SPIE Optical Engineering + Applications, 2015, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

In microscopy, where the theoretical resolution limit depends on the wavelength of the probing light, radiation in the soft X-ray regime can be used to analyze samples that cannot be resolved with visible light microscopes. In the case of soft X-ray microscopy in the water-window, the energy range of the radiation lies between the absorption edges of carbon (at 284 eV, 4.36 nm) and oxygen (543 eV, 2.34 nm). As a result, carbon-based structures, such as biological samples, posses a strong absorption, whereas e.g. water is more transparent to this radiation. Microscopy in the water-window, therefore, allows the structural investigation of aqueous samples with resolutions of a few tens of nanometers and a penetration depth of up to 10μm. The development of highly brilliant laser-produced plasma-sources has enabled the transfer of Xray microscopy, that was formerly bound to synchrotron sources, to the laboratory, which opens the access of this method to a broader scientific community. The Laboratory Transmission X-ray Microscope at the Berlin Laboratory for innovative X-ray technologies (BLiX) runs with a laser produced nitrogen plasma that emits radiation in the soft X-ray regime. The mentioned high penetration depth can be exploited to analyze biological samples in their natural state and with several projection angles. The obtained tomogram is the key to a more precise and global analysis of samples originating from various fields of life science.

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Aurélie Dehlinger, Anne Blechschmidt, Daniel Grötzsch, Robert Jung, Birgit Kanngießer, Christian Seim, and Holger Stiel "3D nanoscale imaging of biological samples with laboratory-based soft X-ray sources", Proc. SPIE 9589, X-Ray Lasers and Coherent X-Ray Sources: Development and Applications XI, 95890M (22 September 2015); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2188324

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