Episode 12: Compact optical system achieves achromatic focusing

In this podcast episode, MRS Bulletin’s Sophia Chen interviews Adam Kubec at Swiss startup XRNanotech and research team member Marie-Christine Zdora of the Paul Scherrer Institut about their proof-of-principle of an x-ray achromatic lens. The lens consist of a focusing diffractive and a defocusing refractive optical element that achieves imaging of a range of wavelengths without having to move the sample. The researchers used two different diffractive lenses, one made from nickel and one with gold. To fabricate the refractive lens, they used a nanoscale 3D printing technique known as two-photon polymerization. This work was published in a recent issue of Nature Communications (doi:10.1038/s41467-022-28902-8).