Latest X-ray optics Stories

As elements of the integrated circuits running our computers, phones and electronics, silicon wafers are everywhere. An ESA-led effort is establishing an out-of-this-world use for these commonplace items: when stacked together precisely by the thousand they promise to deliver astronomy's clearest X-ray view yet of the most violent regions of space."ESA has been working with specialist European firms to develop this new optical technique and build up a supporting industry," said Marcos Bavdaz,...

Not only were images of test patterns (lines formed by layers of chromium and silicon in cross-section) sharper than those made with the XM-1's current 25-nanometer-resolution MZP, the new MZP was able to obtain sharp images of lines a mere 15 nanometers apart "” where the older zone plate had seen only a featureless field of gray. "Nanoscience and nanotechnology are everywhere around us "” biology and chemistry are nanoscience by nature "” but we need better analytical tools to...