SEMINARIO: Compact laser-produced plasma sources based on gas-puff targets for short wavelength microscopy

Seminario a cura di 

Alfio Torrisi
alfio.torrisi@le.infn.it

INFN, section of Lecce (Italy)

Over the last few decades, the development of several bright sources (such as Synchrotron light and Free-electron lasers) represented a milestone for scientific progresses on the spatial resolution improvement for microscopy and nanoimaging. Nevertheless, such spread wide-world facilities require a costly and continuous maintenance, allowing a limited access to carry out experiments. By employing table-top laser-produced plasma, sources based on gas-puff targets coupled with Fresnel zone plate diffractive optics have been used. Emitted Soft X-ray (SXR, λ=0.1-10 nm) in the “water window” (λ =2.3-4.4 nm) spectral range and Extreme ultraviolet (EUV, λ =1-120 nm) are generated. The “debris-free” source generates plasma efficiently, providing high photon flux and thousands of laser pulses per day, allowing to acquire images with an exposure time of a few seconds and improving the spatial resolution up to ~50 nm in photon-based microscopes. The small size and versatility of such systems allow different applications, e.g. in biomedicine and microelectronics, as well as in material science and nanotechnology. Development, characterization (e.g. the monitoring of the generated plasma by using innovative visible-“blind” Silicon Carbide detectors), and possible applications of the SXR/EUV microscopes will be presented, including a prototype of 3D tomography system.