On the feasibility of nanocrystal imaging using intense and ultrashort X-ray pulses.

Structural studies of biological macromolecules are severely limited by radiation damage. Traditional crystallography curbs the effects of damage by spreading damage over many copies of the molecule of interest in the crystal. X-ray lasers offer an additional opportunity for limiting damage by out-running damage processes with ultrashort and very intense X-ray pulses. Such pulses may allow the imaging of single molecules, clusters, or nanoparticles. Coherent flash imaging will also open up new avenues for structural studies on nano- and microcrystalline substances. This paper addresses the theoretical potentials and limitations of nanocrystallography with extremely intense coherent X-ray pulses. We use urea nanocrystals as a model for generic biological substances and simulate the primary and secondary ionization dynamics in the crystalline sample. The results establish conditions for ultrafast single-shot nanocrystallography diffraction experiments as a function of X-ray fluence, pulse duration, and the size of nanocrystals. Nanocrystallography using ultrafast X-ray pulses has the potential to open up a new route in protein crystallography to solve atomic structures of many systems that remain inaccessible using conventional X-ray sources.

Feasibility of imaging living cells at subnanometer resolutions by ultrafast X-ray diffraction.

Detailed structural investigations on living cells are problematic because existing structural methods cannot reach high resolutions on non-reproducible objects. Illumination with an ultrashort and extremely bright X-ray pulse can outrun key damage processes over a very short period. This can be exploited to extend the diffraction signal to the highest possible resolution in flash diffraction experiments. Here we present an analysis of the interaction of a very intense and very short X-ray pulse with a living cell, using a non-equilibrium population kinetics plasma code with radiation transfer. Each element in the evolving plasma is modeled by numerous states to monitor changes in the atomic populations as a function of pulse length, wavelength, and fluence. The model treats photoionization, impact ionization, Auger decay, recombination, and inverse bremsstrahlung by solving rate equations in a self-consistent manner and describes hydrodynamic expansion through the ion sound speed. The results show that subnanometer resolutions could be reached on micron-sized cells in a diffraction-limited geometry at wavelengths between 0.75 and 1.5 nm and at fluences of 1011-1012 photons microm-2 in less than 10 fs. Subnanometer resolutions could also be achieved with harder X-rays at higher fluences. We discuss experimental and computational strategies to obtain depth information about the object in flash diffraction experiments.

Femtosecond time-delay X-ray holography.

Extremely intense and ultrafast X-ray pulses from free-electron lasers offer unique opportunities to study fundamental aspects of complex transient phenomena in materials. Ultrafast time-resolved methods usually require highly synchronized pulses to initiate a transition and then probe it after a precisely defined time delay. In the X-ray regime, these methods are challenging because they require complex optical systems and diagnostics. Here we propose and apply a simple holographic measurement scheme, inspired by Newton's 'dusty mirror' experiment, to monitor the X-ray-induced explosion of microscopic objects. The sample is placed near an X-ray mirror; after the pulse traverses the sample, triggering the reaction, it is reflected back onto the sample by the mirror to probe this reaction. The delay is encoded in the resulting diffraction pattern to an accuracy of one femtosecond, and the structural change is holographically recorded with high resolution. We apply the technique to monitor the dynamics of polystyrene spheres in intense free-electron-laser pulses, and observe an explosion occurring well after the initial pulse. Our results support the notion that X-ray flash imaging can be used to achieve high resolution, beyond radiation damage limits for biological samples. With upcoming ultrafast X-ray sources we will be able to explore the three-dimensional dynamics of materials at the timescale of atomic motion.

Pulse requirements for x-ray diffraction imaging of single biological molecules.

In this paper we estimate the required pulse parameters for the future application of x-ray free electron lasers to imaging single biological molecules. The parameters are determined by a tradeoff between minimizing image degradation due to damage and maximizing the image signal-to-noise ratio. We discuss several means to alleviate the pulse requirements, and compare the requirements with parameters of two planned x-ray lasers.