Large field of view X-ray microscopy with asymmetric bent crystals and a laboratory source

In microscopy, there is a trade-off between the magnification and a workable field of view (FOV). In this paper, bent asymmetric diffraction wafers were used with a conventional X-ray source to accept high divergence and increase the FOV of a two-dimensional X-ray microscope. An FOV of 5 mm with 20× magnification was realized with two independent wafers in a thermomechanically stable setup. Using the knife-edge method, a resolution of 2.5 µm was measured in one dimension. The FOV of such a system is limited by the sizes of the wafers, and the magnification is limited only by the critical angle of external reflection.