Virtual lens improves X-ray microscopy

With X-ray microscopes, researchers at PSI look inside computer chips, catalysts, small pieces of bone, or brain tissue. The short wavelength of the X-rays makes details visible that are a million times smaller than a grain of sand--structures in the nanometer range (millionths of a millimeter). As in a normal microscope, a lens is used to gather the light scattered by the sample and forms an enlarged image on the camera. Tiny structures, however, scatter light at very large angles. To obtain hi...