Abstract
Full field transmission hard X-rays microscopy (TXM) was developed with nanofabricated optics and applied to neuroimaging and in situ study of electrochemistry. This thesis consists of three parts. In the first part, the record-breaking technology development in our research group in fabricating high performance diffractive optics for hard-x-ray imaging such as Fresnel Zone plate (FZP), was described in details.. Specifically, we obtained <17 nm image resolution defined by Rayleigh criteria using these FZPs with an outermost zones of 20 nm FZPs as an image objectives for >8 keV X-ray photons with rigorous tests. The second part of this thesis describe the application of the TXM to study a the nanostructure evolution occurred in the Cu electrodeposition. We presented the 3D real time in situ microscopy results to characterize the progressive and instantaneous mode of Cu nucleation processes. We found that the nucleation behavior was driven by different copper sulfate concentration. The third part of this thesis reveals the influence of applied overpotential and the use of microstructured template in the copper electrodeposition. Specifically, when the overpotential is increased in electrodeposition, the size of copper clusters generated was smaller than that produced in lower overpotential. Using microstructured template in the electrodeposition to limit the copper iron diffusion created dendritic electrodeposits which indicated diffusion limited growth.