Large-aperture X-ray refractive lens

Abstract

An X-ray refractive lens with an enlarged aperture (multilens) is developed and a procedure for obtaining images using this lens and methods of their processing are proposed. The multilens is compared with conventional X-ray refractive lenses, and the method of processing is compared to known techniques. It is shown that the proposed multilens can receive X-ray images with an aperture ratio of two to three orders of magnitude greater than a conventional X-ray refractive lens. Possible applications of the multilens are considered. Most attractive is use of the proposed multilens for imaging biological objects with a very low concentration of contrast agent. Quantitative estimates show that images of such objects can be obtained using modern synchrotron-radiation sources with a resolution of approximately 1 μm in hundreds of seconds.