Giulia F. Mancini: Revolutionary new nano-imaging: harnessing the power of short wavelength EUV light

High-resolution imaging is an essential tool for understanding nanoscale systems. In particular, tabletop extreme ultraviolet (EUV) coherent diffractive imaging (CDI) techniques based on high harmonic generation (HHG) are ideal for investigating complex nanostructured systems, including their static and dynamic electronic, phononic and magnetic properties. Tabletop EUV-CDI combines elemental and chemical selectivity with spatial resolutions that are comparable to the illuminating wavelength (nm), and pulse durations in the femtosecond (fs)-to-attosecond (as) range. Because no optical elements are needed between the sample and detector, coherent imaging is the most photon efficient form of imaging, and can be non-destructive, with no charging effects or resolution loss with depth. Moreover, the contrast mechanisms in EUV CDI are relatively straightforward and intrinsically high: amplitude images exhibit exquisite sensitivity to material composition, while phase images are sensitive to both material composition and topography.

Recently, revolutionary new nano-imaging capabilities have been enabled by the combination of particularly powerful method of CDI, called Ptychography, with high spatial coherence tabletop EUV light from HHG sources. In this talk, I will present the power and promise of EUV and X-ray tabletop microscopy, providing examples of applications such as quantitative chemically-specific detection of reactions at buried interfaces, sub-wavelength imaging of periodic extended objects, structural characterization of opals metalattices by desktop coherent EUV scattering and dynamic imaging of acoustic waves in nanostructures.