Single flash imaging of live hydrated biological cells by a contact soft X-ray microscope coupled with an intense laser-plasma soft X-ray source

Kado, Masataka; Kishimoto, Maki; Tamotsu, Satoshi*; Yasuda, Keiko*; Aoyama, Masato*; Shinohara, Kunio*

Laser-plasma soft X-ray source produced by a high power pulsed laser is extremely bright and very suitable for biological X-ray microscopy to capture an image of living specimens for which require a single flash exposure to avoid imaging any damages on the specimens. We also have invented to use a fluorescent microscope to identify the cellular organelles in the images obtained with the soft X-ray microscope. The biological cells were cultivated directly onto the PMMA photo resists and observed with the soft X-ray microscope and the fluorescent microscope at the same time. The obtained soft X-ray images and fluorescence images of the cells were directly compared and each cellular organelle such as mitochondria, actin filaments, and chromosomes in the soft X-ray images were clearly identified. Since the soft X-ray microscope has higher spatial resolution than that of the fluorescent microscope, fine structures of the cellular organelles in the hydrated biological cells were observed.