Talbot nano-patterning with a table-top soft X-ray laser

We demonstrate a novel high resolution soft X-ray (SXR) patterning approach based on the generalization of the Talbot effect. This effect was used to print periodic structures of arbitrary patterns with nanometer resolution over a large area. The coherent illumination of a tiled mask produced self images of arbitrary motifs allowing for a non-contact replication technique that opens a new avenue for nanofabrication. Compact soft X-ray laser sources recently developed enable this new nanopatterning technique demonstrated with a table-top SXR laser at $\lambda$ = 46.9 nm. Shorter wavelength SXR lasers emitting in the 13 nm region would allow printing of millimeter square areas with sub-10 nm resolution.