Zone plates for hard X-rays fabricated with the SPCVD technology

Fresnel X-ray zone plates, which have been extensively developed for the last 20 years, are widely used for X-ray imaging in the hard part of the X-ray spectrum. In this paper zone plates based on the SPCVD (Surface Plasma Chemical Vacuum Deposition) technology are proposed and their optical properties in the hard X-ray range 10–30 keV are discussed. It will be shown that this technology enables production of zone plates working in the 10–30 keV range based on SiO2/GeO2 multilayer structures. The first zone plate samples based on SPCVD technology have been fabricated and tested. The parameters of the zone plates are: diameter 0.1–2.5 mm, number of zones 1000–2000, focal distance 1–5 m. The X-ray zone plates suggested here, if successful, will dramatically reduce the cost of imaging experiments in the hard X-ray spectral region, while maintaining spatial resolution high enough to be useful for the X-ray microanalysis, X-ray microscopy and focusing of the X-ray radiation.