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Massively parallel X-ray holography

Nature Photonics volume 2, pages 560–563 (2008)Cite this article

Abstract

Advances in the development of free-electron lasers offer the realistic prospect of nanoscale imaging on the timescale of atomic motions. We identify X-ray Fourier-transform holography1,2,3 as a promising but, so far, inefficient scheme to do this. We show that a uniformly redundant array4 placed next to the sample, multiplies the efficiency of X-ray Fourier transform holography by more than three orders of magnitude, approaching that of a perfect lens, and provides holographic images with both amplitude- and phase-contrast information. The experiments reported here demonstrate this concept by imaging a nano-fabricated object at a synchrotron source, and a bacterial cell with a soft-X-ray free-electron laser, where illumination by a single 15-fs pulse was successfully used in producing the holographic image. As X-ray lasers move to shorter wavelengths we expect to obtain higher spatial resolution ultrafast movies of transient states of matter.

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Figure 1: Experimental geometry and imaging.
Figure 2: Massively parallel holography at high resolutions.
Figure 3: Ultrafast holographic imaging with iterative phase extension beyond the nanofabrication limit of the URA.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to L. Fabris for discussions, the staff of FLASH and ALS for help, and to D.A. Fletcher for Spiroplasma samples. This work was supported by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Department of Energy contracts W-7405-Eng-48 and DE-AC52-07NA27344; the Advanced Light Source; the National Centre for Electron Microscopy; the Centre for X-ray Optics at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory under Department of Energy contract DE-AC02-05CH11231; the Stanford Linear Accelerator Centre under Department of Energy contract DE-AC02-76-SF00515; the European Union (TUIXS); The Swedish Research Councils, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft-Cluster of Excellence through the Munich-Centre for Advanced Photonics; the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada to M.B.; and the Sven and Lilly Lawskis Foundation of Sweden to M.M.S.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, 7000 East Avenue, Livermore, 94550, California, USA

    Stefano Marchesini, Michael J. Bogan, Saša Bajt, Anton Barty, Henry N. Chapman, Matthias Frank, Stefan P. Hau-Riege & Abraham Szöke

  2. Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, 94720, California, USA

    Stefano Marchesini, Congwu Cui, David A. Shapiro & Malcolm R. Howells

  3. Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory, Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, 2575 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park, 94025, California, USA

    Sébastien Boutet & Janos Hajdu

  4. Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Laboratory of Molecular Biophysics, Uppsala University, Husargatan 3, Box 596, Uppsala, SE-75124, Sweden

    Sébastien Boutet, Janos Hajdu & Marvin M. Seibert

  5. Centre for X-ray Optics, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, 94720, California, USA

    Anne E. Sakdinawat

  6. DESY, Notkestraße 85, Hamburg, 22607, Germany

    Saša Bajt

  7. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Arizona State University, Tempe, 85287-1504, Arizona, USA

    John C. H. Spence

  8. Department of Physics and Lewis-Sigler Institute, 150 Carl Icahn Laboratory, Princeton, 08544, New Jersey, USA

    Joshua W. Shaevitz

  9. Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of California, Berkeley, 648 Stanley Hall #3220, Berkeley, 94720, California, USA

    Joanna Y. Lee

  10. Centre for Free-Electron Laser Science, DESY, Notkestraße 85, Hamburg, 22607, Germany

    Henry N. Chapman

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  1. Stefano Marchesini
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Contributions

S.M. conceived the experiment after a discussion with L. Fabris and H.N.C. A.E.S. prepared samples for ALS S. Boutet, M.J.B., J.W.S., and J.Y.L. prepared samples for FLASH. C.C., M.R.H., S.M., A.E.S., D.A.S., and J.C.H.S. designed and performed the experiment at ALS A.B., M.J.B., S. Bajt, S. Boutet, H.N.C., M.F., J.H., S.P.H.-R., S.M., and M.M.S. designed and performed the experiment at FLASH. S.M. and S. Boutet processed the data. J.H., M.R.H., S.M. and J.C.H.S. wrote the paper with contributions from all.

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Correspondence to Stefano Marchesini.

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Marchesini, S., Boutet, S., Sakdinawat, A. et al. Massively parallel X-ray holography. Nature Photon 2, 560–563 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2008.154

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