High-Resolution Extreme Ultraviolet Microscopy

This thesis describes novel approaches and implementation of high-resolution microscopy in the extreme ultraviolet light regime. Using coherent ultrafast laser-generated short wavelength radiation for illuminating samples allows imaging beyond the resolution of visible-light microscopes. Michael Zürch gives a comprehensive overview of the fundamentals and techniques involved, starting from the laser-based frequency conversion scheme and its technical implementation as well as general considerations of diffraction-based imaging at nanoscopic spatial resolution. Experiments on digital in-line holography and coherent diffraction imaging of artificial and biologic specimens are demonstrated and discussed in this book. In the field of biologic imaging, a novel award-winning cell classification scheme and its first experimental application for identifying breast cancer cells are introduced. Finally, this book presents a newly developed technique of generating structured illumination by means of so-called optical vortex beams in the extreme ultraviolet regime and proposes its general usability for super-resolution imaging.

Michael Zürch finished his diploma thesis in 2010 on optical induced damage in nanostructures at the Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena earning him the best diploma thesis award of the faculty. During his doctorate he contributed to eight peer-reviewed journal articles, first-authoring five of them. Furthermore, he contributed to two patents and more than a dozen conference presentations, winning an award at the SPIE Medical Imaging 2014 conference for his cancer cell classification research. He finished his PhD thesis in 2014 at the Institute of Optics and Quantum Electronics at FSU Jena on the generation of coherent laser-like extreme ultraviolet light and its application to high-resolution imaging.