Deformable Mirror (X-Ray Focus Size Control and Wavefront Compensation)

Deformable mirrors feature piezoelectric elements attached symmetrically on both sides of the substrate to serve as an X-ray reflective surface. A mirror equipped with 18 elements can achieve a sine wave deformation of up to 9 cycles, enabling freeform surface shapes with depths of tens of micrometers. In conventional systems with fixed-shape mirrors, changing the focal size under the diffraction limit required altering the mirror arrangement or sample position. By contrast, a deformable mirror allows the focal size to be adjusted freely under the diffraction limit without changing the experimental setup. Furthermore, deformable mirrors are utilized for wavefront compensation. In focusing experiments at SPring-8, integrating a wavefront compensation system with a deformable mirror into conventional optics achieved a focus size of 7 nm—the world’s smallest in the X-ray region, breaking the 10 nm barrier. Please feel free to contact us regarding the implementation or specifications of our deformable mirrors.