Progress in sub-micrometer resolution computed tomography

Micro-CT with resolutions in the order of 1 μm is readily available nowadays but below 1 μm the maximum achievable resolution is not only limited by the components parameters like pixel size and focal spot size but also depends strongly on the stability of the whole CT system. We present the performance of our Sub-μm CT based on commercially available components and will show that it is possible to overcome the limitations resulting from instabilities of the system and reach resolution in the range of 500 nm. To overcome this limitation of conventional X-ray tubes we developed a nanofocus X-ray source built from a modified electron probe micro analyzer (EPMA). We present the setup of an X-ray microscope based on this source and first resolution measurements.