Fast imaging of hard x rays with a laboratory microscope.

An improved x-ray microscope with a fully electronic CCD detector system has been constructed that allows improved laboratory-based microstructural investigations of materials with hard x rays. It uses the Kirkpatrick-Baez multilayer mirror design to form an image that has a demonstrated resolution of 4 microm at 8 keV (Cu K(alpha) radiation). This microscope performs well with standard sealed-tube laboratory x-ray sources, producing digital images with 20-s exposure times for a 5-microm Au grid (a thickness of two absorption lengths).