Multi-beam synchrotron infrared chemical imaging with high spatial resolution: Beamline realization and first reports on image restoration

Table-top Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) imaging using focal plane array (FPA) multi-element detectors is an increasingly popular chemical microscopy technique because it can provide microspectroscopic images of large sample areas in short times at moderate spatial resolution. The novel IR beamline IRENI at the Synchrotron Radiation Center (Wisconsin, USA), the first dedicated multi-beam synchrotron-based FT-IR imaging system, offers, within minutes, high quality chemical images at the highest available spatial resolution (diffraction-limited at all mid-IR wavelengths) with a pixel size of 0.54×0.54 μm2 for transmission measurements. Due to this very high spatial sampling, mathematical image enhancement algorithms such as deconvolution and total variation (TV) reconstruction can be implemented to improve image contrast and thus spatial resolution. This is demonstrated for US Air force (USAF) targets, micron-sized aluminum beads, and a single living algal cell.