Development of grating-based hard x-ray Talbot interferometry for optics and beam wavefront characterization at the advanced photon source

Here we report on the effort to develop a hard x-ray grating interferometry technique for application to hard x-ray optics and wavefront characterization at the Advanced Photon Source (APS), Argonne National Laboratory, USA. We will mention the motivation for developing an x-ray interferometer at the APS and discuss the design of the interferometer. We will also describe the efforts in fabricating 2-D gratings and a new type of grating having nanometer periods for high-energy x-ray applications. The preliminary results obtained using x-ray Talbot interferometers built at APS, using a broadband (pink) beam and a monochromatic beam demonstrate the importance of this tool as a metrology instrument for optics and beam wavefront diagnostics.