Breaking The Barrier Toward Nanometer X-ray Resolution

October 1, 2007 | Source: Science Daily

A team of researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory have overcome a major obstacle for using refractive lenses to focus x-rays.

This method will allow the efficient focusing of x-rays down to extremely small spots and is an important breakthrough in the development of a new, world-leading light source facility that promises advances in nanoscience, energy, biology, and materials research.

One of the major goals of the facility is to probe materials and molecules with just one-nanometer resolution — a capability needed to study the intricate mechanisms of chemical and biological systems.