Soft x-ray ptychography with sub 5nm resolution

Within this contribution, we present SOPHIE (SOft X-ray Ptychography Highly Integrated Endstation), a novel end station for soft X-ray ptychography. It has been specifically designed to push the boundaries of nanoimaging, delivering unprecedented spatial resolution and sensitivity at soft and tender X-ray energies. SOPHIE is equipped with some specific instrumentation such as a piezoelectric scanning stage combined with interferometric positioning feedback, or an in-house developed detector. Its flexible configuration allows for a broad range of experiments, including time-resolved studies and spectro-ptychography. Next, we plan to optimize the resolution even further, for instance by decreasing the sample-to-detector distance or decreasing the wavelength as we are close to the Abbe limit. The new imaging capabilities shall be utilized to investigate nanoscopic magnetic structures such as magnetic nanoparticles in high resolution, as well as the application of X-ray beams with orbital angular momentum (OAM) to gain insight in novel light-matter interaction effects.