Improved Spatial Resolution in X-ray Microscopy using a Tilted Angle Detector

We performed simulations and experimental tests of a new method for improving the spatial resolution of x-ray imaging detectors using tilted angle irradiation. In this method, the x-ray beam arrives at the detector surface at an angle of <; 90° so that the beam footprint is expanded and the spatial resolution is increased. The proposed method is applicable for imaging with x-rays in the energy range of E = 0.2-15 keV, which is widely used for x-ray microscopy. The tilted angle irradiation technique can be applied to different types of x-ray microscopy detectors, including indirect conversion detectors (which consist of a scintillator optically coupled to the imaging camera), direct conversion detectors (such as CCD- and CMOS-based soft x-ray cameras) and some other semiconductor detectors. The experimental study described here employed an indirect detector configuration where a thin scintillator was optically coupled to an imaging camera via microscope optics. The spatial resolution was improved by a factor of 2.5 by using a tilt angle of 12° for 13.5 keV x-rays. This study will be continued using different xray energies and detector configurations.