High-fluence and high-gain multilayer focusing optics to enhance spatial resolution in femtosecond X-ray laser imaging.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 36100607.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-022-33014-4 and PMC identifier 9470745.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
With the emergence of X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs), coherent diffractive imaging (CDI) has acquired a capability for single-particle imaging (SPI) of non-crystalline objects under non-cryogenic conditions. However, the single-shot spatial resolution is limited to ~5 nanometres primarily because of insufficient fluence. Here, we present a CDI technique whereby high resolution is achieved with very-high-fluence X-ray focusing using multilayer mirrors with nanometre precision. The optics can focus 4-keV XFEL down to 60 nm × 110 nm and realize a fluence of >3 × 10<sup>5</sup> J cm<sup>-2</sup> pulse<sup>-1</sup> or >4 × 10<sup>12</sup> photons μm<sup>-2</sup> pulse<sup>-1</sup> with a tenfold increase in the total gain compared to conventional optics due to the high demagnification. Further, the imaging of fixed-target metallic nanoparticles in solution attained an unprecedented 2-nm resolution in single-XFEL-pulse exposure. These findings can further expand the capabilities of SPI to explore the relationships between dynamic structures and functions of native biomolecular complexes.