Polymer compound refractive lenses for hard X-ray nanofocusing

Compound refractive lenses fabricated out of SU-8 negative photoresist have been used to generate a nanofocused, i.e. sub-µm sized X-ray focal spot at an X-ray nanodiffraction setup. X-ray microscopy and X-ray diffraction techniques have conceptually different demands on nanofocusing optical elements and so with the application of X-ray nanodiffraction in mind, this paper presents the results of an initial characterization of polymer lenses used as primary focusing device at an X-ray nanodiffraction synchrotron beamline. A beam size of ∼ 600 nm was achieved at a photon energy of 13 keV following only a short initial alignment, with the focal spot representing a demagnified, direct image of the undulator source.