The development of water window soft x-ray multilayers for x-ray microscopy

A water window soft x-ray microscope has been designed for high resolution imaging of still living cellular material. The multilayer mirrors have been identified as the critical component in achieving a useful instrument. Multilayers made from novel materials have been developed to meet this need. Two types of multilayers have been developed--Inconel multilayers and uranium multilayers. Improvement over previous multilayers has been demonstrated for the Inconel/TiN system. U/Sc is expected to provide additional improvement.