Letter abstract
Nature Photonics 2, 415 - 419 (2008)
Published online: 22 June 2008 | doi:10.1038/nphoton.2008.128
Subject Category: Imaging and sensing
Ultrafast single-shot diffraction imaging of nanoscale dynamics
Anton Barty1,7,
Sébastien Boutet2,3,
Michael J. Bogan1,
Stefan Hau-Riege1,
Stefano Marchesini1,
Klaus Sokolowski-Tinten4,
Nikola Stojanovic4,
Ra'anan Tobey5,
Henri Ehrke5,
Andrea Cavalleri5,9,
Stefan Düsterer6,
Matthias Frank1,
Sa
a Bajt1,8,
Bruce W. Woods1,
M. Marvin Seibert3,
Janos Hajdu3,
Rolf Treusch6
&
Henry N. Chapman1,7,8
Abstract
The transient nanoscale dynamics of materials on femtosecond to picosecond timescales is of great interest in the study of condensed phase dynamics such as crack formation, phase separation and nucleation, and rapid fluctuations in the liquid state or in biologically relevant environments. The ability to take images in a single shot is the key to studying non-repetitive behaviour mechanisms, a capability that is of great importance in many of these problems. Using coherent diffraction imaging with femtosecond X-ray free-electron-laser pulses we capture time-series snapshots of a solid as it evolves on the ultrafast timescale. Artificial structures imprinted on a Si3N4 window are excited with an optical laser and undergo laser ablation, which is imaged with a spatial resolution of 50 nm and a temporal resolution of 10 ps. By using the shortest available free-electron-laser wavelengths1 and proven synchronization methods2 this technique could be extended to spatial resolutions of a few nanometres and temporal resolutions of a few tens of femtoseconds. This experiment opens the door to a new regime of time-resolved experiments in mesoscopic dynamics.
- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, 7000 East Avenue, Livermore, California 94550, USA
- Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory, Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, 2575 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park, California 94025, USA
- Laboratory of Molecular Biophysics, Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Uppsala University, Husargatan 3, Box 596, SE-75124 Uppsala, Sweden
-
Institut für Experimentelle Physik, Universität Duisburg-Essen, Lotharstra
e 1, 47048 Duisburg, Germany
- Department of Physics, Clarendon Laboratory, University of Oxford, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PU, UK
-
Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron, DESY, Notkestrae 85, D-22607 Hamburg, Germany
- Center for Biophotonics Science and Technology, University of California, Davis, 2700 Stockton Boulevard, Ste 1400, Sacramento, California 95817, USA
-
Centre for Free Electron Laser Science, Universität Hamburg at DESY, Notkestrae 85, 22607 Hamburg, Germany
-
Max Planck Research Group for Structural Dynamics, Center for Free Electron Laser Science, Universität Hamburg at DESY, Notkestrae 85, 22607 Hamburg, Germany
Correspondence to: Anton Barty1,7 e-mail: a.barty@llnl.gov
Correspondence to: Henry N. Chapman1,7,8 e-mail: henry.chapman@desy.de
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