1. BESSY mbH, Albert-Einstein-Strae 15, 12489 Berlin, Germany
2. SSRL, Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, 2575 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park, California 94025, USA
3. Department of Applied Physics, 316 Via Pueblo Mall, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305-4090, USA
4. San Jose Research Center, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, 650 Harry Road, San Jose, California 95120, USA

Correspondence to: S. Eisebitt¹J. Lüning² Email: eisebitt@bessy.de
Email: luning@stanford.edu

Our knowledge of the structure of matter is largely based on X-ray diffraction studies of periodic structures and the successful transformation (inversion) of the diffraction patterns into real-space atomic maps. But the determination of non-periodic nanoscale structures by X-rays is much more difficult. Inversion of the measured diffuse X-ray intensity patterns suffers from the intrinsic loss of phase information^{1, 2}, and direct imaging methods are limited in resolution by the available X-ray optics³. Here we demonstrate a versatile technique for imaging nanostructures, based on the use of resonantly tuned soft X-rays for scattering contrast and the direct Fourier inversion of a holographically formed interference pattern. Our implementation places the sample behind a lithographically manufactured mask with a micrometre-sized sample aperture and a nanometre-sized hole that defines a reference beam. As an example, we have used the resonant X-ray magnetic circular dichroism effect to image the random magnetic domain structure in a Co/Pt multilayer film with a spatial resolution of 50 nm. Our technique, which is a form of Fourier transform holography, is transferable to a wide variety of specimens, appears scalable to diffraction-limited resolution, and is well suited for ultrafast single-shot imaging with coherent X-ray free-electron laser sources⁴.

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