Performance of a laboratory X-ray microscope, using z-pinch-generated plasmas, for soft X-ray contact microscopy of living biological specimens

The use of high energy lasers for generating plasmas for soft X-ray contact microscopy (SXCM) of living biological specimens is now well established. However, such systems are only available at national laboratories where SXCM is carried out in competition with other users which can create problems when using living specimens. An ideal system would be contained within a normal laboratory. Using the pinch-plasma X-ray source developed at the Institut für Lasertechnik in Aachen, a laboratory-scale soft X-ray contact microscope has been assembled. A selection of images of living specimens are presented here to illustrate the performance of such a microscope.