Atmospheric coherent X-ray diffraction imaging for in situ structural analysis at SPring-8 Hyogo beamline BL24XU

This article describes an atmospheric CXDI system developed at SPring-8 Hyogo beamline BL24XU for in situ structural analysis and designed for experiments at a photon energy of 8   keV. This relatively high X-ray energy enables experiments to be conducted under ambient atmospheric conditions, which is advantageous for the visualization of samples in native states. The illumination condition with pinhole-slit optics is optimized according to wave propagation calculations based on the Fresnel – Kirchhoff diffraction formula so that the sample is irradiated by X-rays with a plane wavefront and high photon flux of ∼ 1 × 1010   photons/16   µ m ø (FWHM)/s. This work demonstrates the imaging performance of the atmospheric CXDI system by visualizing internal voids of sub-micrometre-sized colloidal gold particles at a resolution of 29.1   nm. A CXDI experiment with a single macroporous silica particle under controlled humidity was also performed by installing a home-made humidity control device in the system. The in situ observation of changes in diffraction patterns according to humidity variation and reconstruction of projected electron-density maps at 5.2% RH (relative humidity) and 82.6% RH at resolutions of 133 and 217   nm, respectively, were accomplished.
Source: Journal of Synchrotron Radiation - Category: Physics Authors: Tags: coherent X-ray diffraction imaging non-crystalline samples structural analysis humidity control research papers Source Type: research