Imaging techniques articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Three-dimensional imaging of the fetal heart and quantification of blood flow in the surrounding vessels is very challenging because the heart is small and the fetus is free to move in the womb. Here, the authors demonstrate motion-corrected 4D flow MRI of the whole fetal heart and major vessels.

    • Thomas A. Roberts
    • , Joshua F. P. van Amerom
    •  & Joseph V. Hajnal

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Interfacial fluctuations at the nanoscale, such as shape evolution of a growing crystal, are prohibitively difficult to study experimentally. Here, the authors are able to map the kinetic and thermodynamic parameters involved in shaping of nanoparticle supracrystals by directly imaging the fluctuating crystal surface by liquid-phase TEM, and analyzing it in the context of capillary wave theory.

    • Zihao Ou
    • , Lehan Yao
    •  & Qian Chen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Catalytic selectivity during carbon dioxide electroreduction can be tuned by using geometric copper-based catalysts. Here, the authors use liquid cell transmission electron microscopy to study the in situ synthesis and morphological evolution Cu2O cubes under carbon dioxide electroreduction conditions.

    • Rosa M. Arán-Ais
    • , Rubén Rizo
    •  & Beatriz Roldan Cuenya

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Rational design of multicomponent nanocrystals requires atomic-level understanding of reaction kinetics. Here, the authors apply single-particle liquid-cell electron microscopy imaging coupled with atomistic simulations to understand pathways and rates of bimetallic core-shell nanocubes undergoing oxidative dissolution.

    • Lei Chen
    • , Alberto Leonardi
    •  & Xingchen Ye

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here, the authors generalize cumulant analysis by extending it into the spectral domain to allow multicolour super-resolution optical fluctuation imaging. The simultaneous acquisition of two spectral channels followed by spectral cross-cumulant analysis and unmixing allows denser spectral and spatial sampling of the super-resolved image.

    • K. S. Grußmayer
    • , S. Geissbuehler
    •  & T. Lasser

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Excited charge carriers, such as photoelectrons, play an important role in fundamental and technological fields. Here the authors employ an ultrafast electron microscope to directly visualize the cyclotron oscillations and oblate-to-prolate shape change of a photoemitted electron gas from a laser-excited copper surface.

    • Omid Zandi
    • , Allan E. Sykes
    •  & Renske M. van der Veen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The design of oxide-metal interface for heterogeneous catalysis has been hampered by the limited fundamental understanding. Here, the authors demonstrate that the activities of cuprous oxide nanostructures for CO oxidation can be tuned via the oxide-metal (Cu2O/M, M = Pt, Ag, Au) interaction.

    • Wugen Huang
    • , Qingfei Liu
    •  & Fan Yang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    How nanoparticle (NP) catalysts re-structure under reaction conditions and how these changes associate with catalytic activity remains poorly understood. Here, the authors present operando TEM studies of Pd NPs during CO oxidation, which show reversible changes in both structure and activity with temperature.

    • See Wee Chee
    • , Juan Manuel Arce-Ramos
    •  & Utkur Mirsaidov

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Photoabsorption is a fundamental process that leads to changes in the electron density in matter. Here, the authors show a direct measurement of the distribution of electron density when a cyclohexadine molecule is excited by pulsed UV radiation and probed by a time delayed X-ray pulse generated at LCLS.

    • Haiwang Yong
    • , Nikola Zotev
    •  & Peter M. Weber

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Ultrafast imaging has been limited by the speed of electronic sensors. Here, the authors demonstrate single-shot compressed ultrafast spectral photography, which combines spectral encoding, pulse splitting, temporal shearing, and compressed sensing in order to achieve real-time imaging at 70 trillion frames per second.

    • Peng Wang
    • , Jinyang Liang
    •  & Lihong V. Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Current implementations of non-line-of-sight imaging use reconstruction algorithms that are difficult to implement fast enough for real-time application using light efficient equipment. The authors present an algorithm for non-line-of-sight imaging that is low complexity and allows fast and efficient reconstruction on a standard computer.

    • Xiaochun Liu
    • , Sebastian Bauer
    •  & Andreas Velten

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Near-infrared (NIR) fluorophores have attracted interest for bioimaging; yet availability, biocompatibility and application can be an issue. Here, the authors report on the development of Egyptian Blue nanosheets with high NIR fluorescence and photostability demonstrating bioimaging applications in vivo.

    • Gabriele Selvaggio
    • , Alexey Chizhik
    •  & Sebastian Kruss

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Shock-waves in explosive, supersonic or ionizing environments impart phase distortions to holographic imaging. Here, the authors report an ultra-high-speed phase conjugate digital in-line holography technique where a laser passes through the shock-wave and is reflected back through the phase distortion, thus correcting phase delays.

    • Yi Chen Mazumdar
    • , Michael E. Smyser
    •  & Daniel R. Guildenbecher

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Aperiodic structure imaging suffers limitations when utilizing Fourier analysis. The authors report an algorithm that quantitatively overcomes these limitations based on nonconvex optimization, demonstrated by studying aperiodic structures via the phase sensitive interference in STM images.

    • Sky C. Cheung
    • , John Y. Shin
    •  & Abhay N. Pasupathy

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The lifetime of decaying quantum states has been thought to depend on the strength of the coupling causing the decay. Here the authors demonstrate that quantum mechanical interference can dominate this process, observing Fano-Feshbach resonance lifetimes covering several orders of magnitude.

    • Alexander Blech
    • , Yuval Shagam
    •  & Christiane P. Koch

  • Article
    | Open Access

    For conventional three-dimensional microcrystal electron diffraction (3D ED/MicroED), a crystal is slowly rotated under an electron beam, leading to inevitable accumulation of radiation damage during data collection. In this work, the authors present a serial electron diffraction method, where still diffraction patterns from many protein nanocrystals are rapidly recorded and merged, which minimises radiation damage and only requires a slightly modified standard scanning transmission electron microscope.

    • Robert Bücker
    • , Pascal Hogan-Lamarre
    •  & R. J. Dwayne Miller

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In ideal diffraction-limited optical microscopy imaging depth is limited by the multiply scattered wave. Here, the authors present a space gating method, based on an acoustic focus in the object plane and reconstruction using only the acousto-optically modulated ballistic wave, and demonstrate increased imaging depth in scattering samples.

    • Mooseok Jang
    • , Hakseok Ko
    •  & Wonshik Choi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    X-ray free electron lasers provide high photon flux to explore single particle diffraction imaging of biological samples. Here the authors present dynamic electronic structure calculations and benchmark them to single-particle XFEL diffraction data of sucrose clusters to predict optimal single-shot imaging conditions.

    • Phay J. Ho
    • , Benedikt J. Daurer
    •  & Christoph Bostedt

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Traditional ratiometric temperature monitoring is challenging due to the variation in tissue absorption and scattering of different wavelengths. Here, the authors show improved accuracy by using emission at the same wavelength, but different luminescent lifetimes decoded by a time-resolved technique.

    • Xiaochen Qiu
    • , Qianwen Zhou
    •  & Fuyou Li

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Although polarized Raman microscopy is sensitive to orientation changes, quantitative information has been missing. Here, the authors use simultaneous registration of multiple Raman scattering spectra obtained at different polarizations and show quantitative orientation mapping

    • Oleksii Ilchenko
    • , Yuriy Pilgun
    •  & Anja Boisen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Thermal characterization of biological tissues can traditionally provide either large fields of view or high resolution. By the development of super-resolution infrared photo-thermal imaging, the authors reconstruct temperature-based maps of absorptive centers in millimeter-sized biological samples.

    • M. Bouzin
    • , M. Marini
    •  & M. Collini

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Mesoscale investigations of material microarchitecture using small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) methods have been limited by long measurement times. Here, the authors present an X-ray diffractive optics method which enables single shot acquisition of SAXS signals over large areas.

    • Matias Kagias
    • , Zhentian Wang
    •  & Marco Stampanoni

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The orientation of a molecule on a surface affects many processes, so the ability to control single-molecule rotation could be powerful. Here, the authors use the electric field from a scanning tunneling microscope tip to precisely induce unidirectional rotation of a polar molecule, allowing visualization of the molecule’s internal dipole moment.

    • Grant J. Simpson
    • , Víctor García-López
    •  & Leonhard Grill

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The manufacturing process for GRIN lenses causes a symmetric birefringence variation which is considered a deficiency. Here, the authors show how this birefringence can generate vector vortex beams and form the basis of a Müller matrix polarimeter with potential for endoscopic label-free cancer diagnostics.

    • Chao He
    • , Jintao Chang
    •  & Martin J. Booth

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The speed of surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) imaging is generally limited due to low Raman signals. Here, the authors develop bright gap-enhanced Raman tags with external hot spots and demonstrate their use in fast near-infrared bioimaging.

    • Yuqing Zhang
    • , Yuqing Gu
    •  & Jian Ye

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The magnetic field imaging on microscopic scale is of great importance to fundamental research as well industrial applications. Here the authors show the capability to visualize and characterize the magnetic properties with 100-micrometer resolution in macroscopic samples using a cold polarized neutron beam in neutron grating interferometry.

    • Jacopo Valsecchi
    • , Ralph P. Harti
    •  & Christian Grünzweig

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Understanding fast phenomena that happen in hot and opaque environments, such as during metal foaming, remains a challenge. Here, the authors use ultra-fast imaging of more than 200 three-dimensional volumes per second to explore bubble coalescence in an aluminium alloy.

    • Francisco García-Moreno
    • , Paul Hans Kamm
    •  & John Banhart

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Electrophoretic mobility shift assays are widely used in gel electrophoresis to study binding interactions between different molecular species, but these assays access only a subset of reaction possibilities. Here, the authors develop a band-collision gel electrophoresis (BCGE) approach that demonstrates a much wider variety of reaction types.

    • Dimitri A. Bikos
    •  & Thomas G. Mason

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Imaging deformation twins in three dimensions is difficult and they are usually viewed as two-dimensional ellipsoids. Here, the authors statistically analyze more than two hundred deformation twins in magnesium observed in three different views and show lateral twin expansion is faster than forward propagation.

    • Y. Liu
    • , P. Z. Tang
    •  & C. N. Tomé

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Radiation induced sample deformation can be a limiting factor for X-ray imaging resolution at the nanoscale. The authors report a tomographic model that estimates and accounts for morphological changes during data acquisition and enables reconstruction of a high-resolution image ab initio.

    • Michal Odstrcil
    • , Mirko Holler
    •  & Manuel Guizar-Sicairos

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Laser-matter interaction has been intensively studied in equilibrium states, but irreversible processes in a highly nonequilibrium state at nanoscales remains elusive due to experimental challenges. Here, Ihm et al. image heterogeneous melting of gold nanoparticles with nanometer and picosecond resolution.

    • Yungok Ihm
    • , Do Hyung Cho
    •  & Changyong Song

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Photon collection from quantum emitters is difficult, and their scale requires the use of free-space optical measurement setups which prevent packaging of quantum devices. Here, the authors design and fabricate a metasurface that acts as an immersion lens to collect and collimate the emission of an individual emitter.

    • Tzu-Yung Huang
    • , Richard R. Grote
    •  & Lee C. Bassett

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Electron microscopy typically requires strong magnetic lenses in order to reach atomic resolution, prohibiting the possibility to measure magnetic materials. The authors here present a lens design that enables atomic-resolution electron microscopy of magnetic materials by providing a field-free sample region.

    • N. Shibata
    • , Y. Kohno
    •  & Y. Ikuhara

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Zero-group-velocity Lamb waves, which are surface waves with reduced losses and high Q factor, have many potential applications. The authors image such waves in 2 dimensions, and in the GHz range, with a bilayer using a time-resolved imaging technique with an ultra-short-pulse laser.

    • Qingnan Xie
    • , Sylvain Mezil
    •  & Oliver B. Wright

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The optical transmission of images through a multimode fibre remains an outstanding challenge. Here, the authors implement a method that statistically reconstructs the inverse transformation matrix for a fibre and demonstrate real-time imaging of natural scenes in full colour, high resolution and high frame rate.

    • Piergiorgio Caramazza
    • , Oisín Moran
    •  & Daniele Faccio

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Single-molecule methods often rely on point spread functions that are tailored to interpret specific information. Here the authors use a neural network to extract complex PSF information from experimental images, and demonstrate this by classifying color and axial positions of emitters.

    • Taehwan Kim
    • , Seonah Moon
    •  & Ke Xu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Laser-matter interactions during laser powder bed fusion additive manufacturing remain poorly understood. Here, the authors combine in situ X-ray imaging and finite element simulations to show how detrimental pores form under printing conditions and develop a strategy to suppress them.

    • Aiden A. Martin
    • , Nicholas P. Calta
    •  & Manyalibo J. Matthews

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Borophene, or 2D boron, is highly polymorphic with many predicted lattice arrangements, complicating the identification of its atomic structure. Here, the authors use functionalized-tip scanning probe microscopy to directly resolve the atomic lattice structures of several borophene polymorphs.

    • Xiaolong Liu
    • , Luqing Wang
    •  & Mark C. Hersam

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Semiconducting polymers are widely used in optoelectronic devices, in which their microstructure informs function. Here, the authors are able to resolve the molecular and sub-molecular ordering of polythiophene strands and thin films using atomic force microscopy, a significant step towards correlating polymer structure with device performance.

    • Vladimir V. Korolkov
    • , Alex Summerfield
    •  & Peter H. Beton

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Distinguishing between closely situated targets depends inversely on the bandwidth of the transmitted radar signal. Here, the authors demonstrate a type of ranging system which is not limited by bandwidth. They show an improvement of two orders of magnitude, compared to standard coherent radars with the same bandwidth.

    • Rony Komissarov
    • , Vitali Kozlov
    •  & Pavel Ginzburg

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