Quadratic grating apodized photon sieves for simultaneous multiplane microscopy

•A novel quadratic grating apodized photon sieves is proposed.•It has different focusing capabilities for different diffraction orders compared to traditional PSs.•Such sieves can image multiple layers within an object field onto a single image plane.•Our findings provide a new direction for detecting dynamic specimens by X-ray microscopy in the physical and life sciences.

We present a new type of imaging device, named quadratic grating apodized photon sieve (QGPS), used as the objective for simultaneous multiplane imaging in X-rays. The proposed QGPS is structured based on the combination of two concepts: photon sieves and quadratic gratings. Its design principles are also expounded in detail. Analysis of imaging properties of QGPS in terms of point-spread function shows that QGPS can image multiple layers within an object field onto a single image plane. Simulated and experimental results in visible light both demonstrate the feasibility of QGPS for simultaneous multiplane imaging, which is extremely promising to detect dynamic specimens by X-ray microscopy in the physical and life sciences.