|Lensless Imaging of Magnetic Nanostructures| |Wednesday, 28
March 2012 00:00| Magnetism is useful for many devices and
techniques, from electric motors and computer hard drives to
magnetic resonance imaging used in medicine. By studying the
basics of magnetism, scientists aim to better understand the
fundamental physical principles that govern magnetic systems,
perhaps leading to important new technologies. The high
brightness and coherence of the ALS's soft x-rays have enabled
scientists to apply lensless x-ray imaging for the first time to
nanometer-scale magnetic structures in an alloy. Coherent
diffraction imaging (CDI), also known as x-ray diffraction
microscopy (XDM), is a method that was developed to "see" tiny
structures without using a lens to produce a magnified image of
the structure. This is particularly important in the x-ray
regime, because x-ray optics technology cannot presently deliver
the smallest theoretically possible spatial resolution (i.e.,
resolution at the "diffraction limit"). Image