81 research outputs found
Direct reconstruction of the two-dimensional pair distribution function in systems with angular correlations
An x-ray scattering approach to determine the two-dimensional (2D) pair
distribution function (PDF) in partially ordered 2D systems is proposed. We
derive relations between the structure factor and PDF that enable quantitative
studies of positional and bond-orientational (BO) order in real space. We apply
this approach in the x-ray study of a liquid crystal (LC) film undergoing the
smectic-hexatic phase transition, to analyze the interplay between the
positional and BO order during the temperature evolution of the LC film. We
analyze the positional correlation length in different directions in real
space.Comment: 23 pages, 8 figure
Hanbury Brown and Twiss interferometry at a free-electron laser
We present measurements of second- and higher-order intensity correlation
functions (so-called Hanbury Brown and Twiss experiment) performed at the
free-electron laser (FEL) FLASH in the non-linear regime of its operation. We
demonstrate the high transverse coherence properties of the FEL beam with a
degree of transverse coherence of about 80% and degeneracy parameter of the
order 10^9 that makes it similar to laser sources. Intensity correlation
measurements in spatial and frequency domain gave an estimate of the FEL
average pulse duration of 50 fs. Our measurements of the higher-order
correlation functions indicate that FEL radiation obeys Gaussian statistics,
which is characteristic to chaotic sources.Comment: 19 pages, 6 figures, 1 table, 40 reference
Statistical properties of a free-electron laser revealed by the Hanbury Brown and Twiss interferometry
We present a comprehensive experimental analysis of statistical properties of
the self-amplified spontaneous emission (SASE) free-electron laser (FEL) FLASH
at DESY in Hamburg by means of Hanbury Brown and Twiss (HBT) interferometry.
The experiments were performed at the FEL wavelengths of 5.5 nm, 13.4 nm, and
20.8 nm. We determined the 2-nd order intensity correlation function for all
wavelengths and different operation conditions of FLASH. In all experiments a
high degree of spatial coherence (above 50%) was obtained. Our analysis
performed in spatial and spectral domains provided us with the independent
measurements of an average pulse duration of the FEL that were below 60 fs. To
explain complicated behaviour of the 2-nd order intensity correlation function
we developed advanced theoretical model that includes the presence of multiple
beams and external positional jitter of the FEL pulses. By this analysis we
determined that in most experiments several beams were present in radiating
field and in one of the experiments external positional jitter was about 25% of
the beam size. We envision that methods developed in our study will be used
widely for analysis and diagnostics of the FEL radiation.Comment: 29 pages, 14 figures, 3 table
Characterization of Spatial Coherence of Synchrotron Radiation with Non-Redundant Arrays of Apertures
We present a method to characterize the spatial coherence of soft X-ray
radiation from a single diffraction pattern. The technique is based on
scattering from non-redundant arrays (NRA) of slits and records the degree of
spatial coherence at several relative separations from one to 15 microns,
simultaneously. Using NRAs we measured the transverse coherence of the X-ray
beam at the XUV X-ray beamline P04 of the PETRA III synchrotron storage ring as
a function of different beam parameters. To verify the results obtained with
the NRAs additional Young's double pinhole experiments were conducted and show
good agreement.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figures, 2 tables, 42 reference
Diffraction based Hanbury Brown and Twiss interferometry performed at a hard x-ray free-electron laser
We demonstrate experimentally Hanbury Brown and Twiss (HBT) interferometry at
a hard X-ray Free Electron Laser (XFEL) on a sample diffraction patterns. This
is different from the traditional approach when HBT interferometry requires
direct beam measurements in absence of the sample. HBT analysis was carried out
on the Bragg peaks from the colloidal crystals measured at Linac Coherent Light
Source (LCLS). We observed high degree (80%) spatial coherence of the full beam
and the pulse duration of the monochromatized beam on the order of 11 fs that
is significantly shorter than expected from the electron bunch measurements.Comment: 32 pages, 10 figures, 2 table
Bragg coherent x-ray diffractive imaging of a single indium phosphide nanowire
Three-dimensional (3D) Bragg coherent x-ray diffractive imaging (CXDI) with a nanofocused beam was applied to quantitatively map the internal strain field of a single indium phosphide nanowire. The quantitative values of the strain were obtained by pre-characterization of the beam profile with transmission ptychography on a test sample. Our measurements revealed the 3D strain distribution in a region of 150 nm below the catalyst Au particle. We observed a slight gradient of the strain in the range of ±0.6% along the [111] growth direction of the nanowire. We also determined the spatial resolution in our measurements to be about 10 nm in the direction perpendicular to the facets of the nanowire. The CXDI measurements were compared with the finite element method simulations and show a good agreement with our experimental results. The proposed approach can become an effective tool for in operando studies of the nanowires
Observation of a single protein by ultrafast X-ray diffraction
The idea of using ultrashort X-ray pulses to obtain images of single proteins frozen in time has fascinated and inspired many. It was one of the arguments for building X-ray free-electron lasers. According to theory1, the extremely intense pulses provide sufficient signal to dispense with using crystals as an amplifier, and the ultrashort pulse duration permits capturing the diffraction data before the sample inevitably explodes2. This was first demonstrated on biological samples a decade ago on the giant mimivirus3. Since then a large collaboration4 has been pushing the limit of the smallest sample that can be imaged5,6. The ability to capture snapshots on the timescale of atomic vibrations, while keeping the sample at room temperature, may allow probing the entire conformational phase space of macromolecules. Here we show the first observation of an X-ray diffraction pattern from a single protein, that of Escherichia coli GroEL which at 14 nm in diameter7 is the smallest biological sample ever imaged by X-rays, and demonstrate that the concept of diffraction before destruction extends to single proteins. From the pattern, it is possible to determine the approximate orientation of the protein. Our experiment demonstrates the feasibility of ultrafast imaging of single proteins, opening the way to single-molecule time-resolved studies on the femtosecond timescale
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