[en] Two phase contrast imaging techniques, namely two dimensional grating interferometry and X-ray speckle tracking (XST), have been combined with the use of a Fresnel Zone Plate (FZP) for application to X-ray microscopy. Both techniques allows the phase shift introduced by a sample on a hard X-ray beam in two dimensions, to be recovered with a high sensitivity and low requirements on transverse and longitudinal coherence. Sub-micron phase imaging of carbon fibres was achieved using the two methods thanks to the high magnification ratio of the FZP. Advantages, drawbacks and differences between these two techniques for X-ray microscopy are discussed

[en] Focusing of X-rays to nanometre scale focal spots requires high precision X-ray optics. For nano-focusing mirrors, height errors in the mirror surface retard or advance the X-ray wavefront and after propagation to the focal plane, this distortion of the wavefront causes blurring of the focus resulting in a limit on the spatial resolution. We describe here the implementation of a method for correcting the wavefront that is applied before a focusing mirror using custom-designed refracting structures which locally cancel out the wavefront distortion from the mirror. We demonstrate in measurements on a synchrotron radiation beamline a reduction in the size of the focal spot of a characterized test mirror by a factor of greater than 10 times. This technique could be used to correct existing synchrotron beamline focusing and nanofocusing optics providing a highly stable wavefront with low distortion for obtaining smaller focus sizes. This method could also correct multilayer or focusing crystal optics allowing larger numerical apertures to be used in order to reduce the diffraction limited focal spot size.

[en] A two-dimensional (2D) grating interferometer was used to perform at-wavelength metrology. A Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) of the interferograms recovers the differential X-ray beam phase in two orthogonal directions simultaneously. As an example, the X-ray wavefronts downstream from a Fresnel Zone plate were measured using the moiré fringe analysis method, which requires only a single image. The rotating shearing interferometer technique for moiré fringe analysis was extended from one dimension to two dimensions to carry out absolute wavefront metrology. In addition, the 2D moiré fringes were extrapolated using Gerchberg's method to reduce the boundary artifacts. The advantages and limitations of the phase-stepping method and the moiré fringe analysis method are also discussed. -- Highlights: ► A rapid and sensitive strip test for CPPU (forchlorfenuron) detection is reported. ► Carbon nanoparticles were used for antibody labelling. ► A common flatbed scanner was employed to the quantitate strip spots. ► The new method was successfully applied to the analysis of the field samples