Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 090801 (2008) doi:

Credit: C. G. SCHROER ET AL./AM. PHYS. SOC.

X-rays are commonly used to study everything from semiconductors to proteins. But the special optics commonly used to focus these rays struggle to produce images better than a few tens of nanometres in resolution.

Christian Schroer of the Technical University in Dresden, Germany, and his colleagues have improved their X-ray vision by using better beams. A coherent X-ray beam 100 nanometres in diameter produced a diffraction pattern (pictured) that could be processed to reveal details of a small gold particle just 5 nanometres across. The technique may be used in future large-scale X-ray facilities.