Development of single shot soft X-ray contact microscopy system for nano-scale dynamics measurement of living biological specimen

Kishimoto, Maki; Kado, Masataka; Ishino, Masahiko; Tamotsu, Satoshi*; Yasuda, Keiko*; Shinohara, Kunio*

We have been developing a picosecond single shot soft X-ray contact microscopy system for observing the nanometer-scale inner structure of the living biological specimen in a hydrated condition. The microscopy system consists of an intense IR pump laser system for generating soft X-rays and X-ray microscope chamber. The pump laser system employs OPCPA technique to generate water-window X-rays effectively. The X-ray microscope chamber is composed of a vacuum chamber, a focusing lens, a metal film target, an in-vacuum type sample holder. The soft X-rays from the laser-induced plasma generated by pump laser pulse illuminates bio-specimens on the PMMA photo resist set in the in-vacuum sample holder. The photo resist is developed and the X-ray transmission imageis read out by AFM. We took X-ray images of hydrated Leydig cells from mouse testicle and demonstrated that the developed X-ray microscopy system has a spatial resolution of about 100 nm.