Incoherent Diffractive Imaging via Intensity Correlations of hard X-rays

Abstract

Established x-ray diffraction methods allow for high-resolution structure determination of crystals, crystallized protein structures or even single molecules. While these techniques rely on coherent scattering, incoherent processes like Compton scattering or fluorescence emission -- often the predominant scattering mechanisms -- are generally considered detrimental for imaging applications. Here we show that intensity correlations of incoherently scattered x-ray radiation can be used to image the full 3D structure of the scattering atoms with significantly higher resolution compared to conventional coherent diffraction imaging and crystallography, including additional three-dimensional information in Fourier space for a single sample orientation. We present a number of properties of incoherent diffractive imaging that are conceptually superior to those of coherent methods.

2 figures

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Cited by in corpus (3)

• Light from an ion crystal: bunching or antibunching?
• Photon statistics and signal to noise ratio for incoherent diffraction imaging
• Partial Coherence in modern optics: Emil Wolf's legacy in the 21st century