<title>Development and first applications of an imaging microscope using the Vulcan x-ray laser</title>

An imaging microscope, comprising a Schwarzschild condenser and zone plate optical arrangement, has been established on the Vulcan Nd-glass laser system at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL). Images of simple test structures have been taken in x-ray transmission using doublet x-ray laser radiation at 23.2 nm and 23.6 nm from collisionally pumped Ne-like germanium. Image resolutions of about 0.15 micrometers have been measured. The results are intended as a proof of principle and demonstrate both that images can be taken successfully using the Vulcan x-ray laser, and of specimen regions which are destroyed on passage of the x-ray beam.