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An X-ray microscope uses electromagnetic radiation in the soft X-ray band to produce images of very small objects.
Unlike visible light, X-rays do not reflect or refract easily, and they are invisible to the human eye. Therefore, the basic process of an X-ray microscope is to expose film or use a charge-coupled device (CCD) detector to detect X-rays that pass through the specimen. It is a contrast imaging technology using the difference in absorption of soft X-ray in the water window region (wavelength region: 2.34–4.4 nm, photon energy region: 280 – 530 eV) by the carbon atom (main element composing the living cell) and the oxygen atom (main element for water).