| The XM-1 is a soft x-ray full-field imaging microscope. It achieves a high spatial resolution of 30 nm through the use of high-precision diffractive optics. This dissertation describes the work that I have performed to add high spectral resolution capabilities to the high spatial resolution imaging of the microscope. The alignment of the condenser lens, which provides illumination to the sample, has been optimized to allow a change in illumination energy without changing the distribution of the illumination on the sample. A measurement system has been implemented which allows precision measurement of the location of the objective lens of the microscope in order to keep multiple images at different energies aligned. A cryogenic sample stage has been built which allows multiple images of biological cells without the appearance of radiation damage. The spectral resolution of the microscope has been both calculated and measured experimentally to have a bandwidth of lambda/Deltalambda = 700. With this spectral resolution, the microscope has been used to determine the location of some elements and chemical states to within the spatial resolution of the microscope of 30 nm. |
