HYBRID Simulations of Diffraction-Limited Focusing with Kirkpatrick-Baez Mirrors for a Next-Generation In Situ Hard X-ray Nanoprobe

Next-generation hard X-ray nanoprobe beamlines such as the In Situ Nanoprobe (ISN) beamline being planned at the Advanced Photon Source aim at providing very high spatial resolution while also enabling very high focused flux, to study complex materials and devices using fast, multidimensional imaging across many length scales. The ISN will use diffractive optics to focus X-rays with a bandpass of ∆E/E = 10⁻⁴ into a focal spot of 20 nm or below. Reflective optics in Kirkpatrick-Baez geometry will be used to focus X-rays with a bandpass as large as ∆E/E = 10⁻² into a focal spot of 50 nm. Diffraction-limited focusing with reflective optics is achieved by spatial filtering and use of a very long, vertically focusing mirror. To quantify the performance of the ISN beamline, we have simulated the propagation of both partially and fully coherent wavefronts from the undulator source, through the ISN beamline and into the mirror-based focal spot. Simulations were carried out using the recently developed software “HYBRID.”