Two-photon X-ray Ghost Microscope

Abstract

Unlike classic imaging devices in the visible spectrum, there are no effective imaging lenses to produce the point-to-point image-forming function for high-energy (short-wavelength) X rays. The X-ray imaging that we are familiar with more closely resembles a projection or "shadow" of the object rather than a point-to-point image. Here, we present an imaging mechanism that produces true point-to-point imaging of X rays through the measurement of two-photon interference intensity fluctuation correlation, which allows for a table-top X-ray microscope by means of a magnified secondary ghost image. In principle, once some experimental barriers are overcome, this X-ray "ghost microscope" may achieve nanometer spatial resolution and open up new capabilities that would be of interest to the fields of physics, material science, and medical imaging.