The field of X-ray microscopy has a bright future. I recommend this modern, comprehensive and clearly written book to students, teachers, developers and users of X-ray microscopes. I am impressed with the book's scope, which spans X-ray physics. X-ray sources, beamlines, nano-positioners, detectors, focusing optics, tomography and spectromicroscopy are elucidated. I found the sections on wavefield propagation, coherent diffraction imaging, phase retrieval and ptychography fascinating.
This book is extraordinarily useful across disparate disciplines because it exceeds the Landau threshold of the theoretical minimum knowledge that is required for innovative work in X-ray microscopy. Almost every page contains color figures, which augment the reader’s understanding. The author stresses the limitations of theory, instruments and algorithms throughout the book, e.g., radiation damage and cryo-microscopy. The step-by-step derivations of physical optics, coupled with physical explanations, is developed under various approximations. Online appendices supplement the text and a useful, extensive list of references and an index are included.
Review by Barry R. Masters, Fellow of AAAS, OSA and SPIE.
The opinions expressed in the book review section are those of the reviewer and do not necessarily reflect those of OPN or OSA.