Femtosecond X-ray Diffractive Imaging

We have demonstrated coherent flash diffraction imaging using an extremely intense and very short FEL pulse from FLASH (VUV-FEL was named ‘FLASH’ after these experiments). The FEL pulse produced an interpretable diffraction pattern from a nano-structured non-periodic object, before destroying it at 60,000 K. The reconstructed image, obtained directly from the coherent diffraction pattern by phase retrieval through over-sampling, shows no measurable damage. Our results validate the concept of single-shot imaging with extremely intense and ultra short FEL pulses. The resolution of the reconstructed image extends to the diffraction limit. This indicates that significant damage occurs only after the ultrashort FEL pulse traverses the sample. These results have implications for studying non-periodic molecular structures in biology, or in any other area of science and technology where structural information with high spatial and temporal resolution is valuable.

References:

Chapman, H.; Barty, A.; Bogan, M.; Boutet, S.; Frank, M.; Hau-Riege, S. P.; Marchesini, S.; Woods, B. W.; Bajt, S.; Benner, W. H.; London, R. A.; Plonjes, E.; Kuhlmann, M.; Treusch, R.; Dusterer, S.; Tschentscher, T.; Schneider, J. R.; Spiller, E.; Moller, T.; Bostedt, C.; Hoener, M.; Shapiro, D. A.; Hodgson, K. O.; van der Spoel, D.; Burmeister, F.; Bergh, M.; Caleman, C.; Huldt, G.; Seibert, M. M.; Maia, F. R. N. C.; Lee, R. W.; Szoke, A.; Timneanu, N.; Hajdu, J., "Femtosecond diffractive imaging with a soft-X-ray free-electron laser," Nature Physics, 2006, 2, 839-843

Boutet, S.; Bogan, M. J.; Barty, A.; Frank, M.; Marchesini, S.; Seibert, M. M.; Hajdu, J.; Chapman, H. N., "Ultrafast soft X-ray scattering and reference-ehanced imaging of weakly scattering spherical polystyrene nanoparticles," Journal of Electron Spectroscopy and Related Phenomena, 2008, 166-167, 65-73.

Bajt, S.; Chapman, H. N.; Spiller, E.; Alameda, J.; Woods, B. W.; Frank, M.; Bogan, M. J.; Barty, A.; Boutet, S.; Marchesini, S.; Hau-Riege, S. P.; Hajdu, J.; Shapiro, D., "A Camera for coherent diffractive imaging and holography with a soft x-ray free-electron laser," Applied Optics, 2008, 47, 1673-1683.

Hau-Riege SP et al, "Sacrificial tamper slows down sample explosion in ultrafast x-ray diffraction experiments" Phys Rev Lett 104, 064801, 2010

Seibert MM et al, "Femtosecond diffractive imaging of biological cells" J Phys B: Atom, Mol, Optics 43, 194015, 2010

 PULSE Research Nanoscale & Biomolecular Imaging • Publications • Scientific Staff