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Nature Nanotechnology 4, 83 (1 February 2009) | doi:10.1038/nnano.2008.412

Imaging: Highs from lows

Adarsh Sandhu

Diffractive imaging with X-rays or electrons could potentially probe the three-dimensional structure of single nanoparticles on the atomic scale, but its resolution is limited because weak coherent scattering cannot be detected by conventional diffraction imaging procedures. Now, Jian Zuo and colleagues at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign report diffractive imaging of cadmium sulphide quantum dots with sub-|[aring]|ngstr|[ouml]|m resolution by integrating information from a low-resolution 'image' with the diffraction pattern generated by the passage of electrons through the sample inside a transmission electron microscope (Nature Phys.