Beyond crystallography: diffractive imaging using coherent x-ray light sources.
X-ray crystallography has been central to the development of many fields of science over the past century. It has now matured to a point that as long as good-quality crystals are available, their atomic structure can be routinely determined in three dimensions. However, many samples in physics, chemistry, materials science, nanoscience, geology, and biology are noncrystalline, and thus their three-dimensional structures are not accessible by traditional x-ray crystallography. Overcoming this hurdle has required the development of new coherent imaging methods to harness new coherent x-ray light sources. Here we review the revolutionary advances that are transforming x-ray sources and imaging in the 21st century.
Department of Physics and Astronomy and California NanoSystems Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA. miao@physics.ucla.edu.
Jianwei
J
Miao
RIKEN SPring-8 Center, Kouto 1-1-1, Sayo, Hyogo 679-5148, Japan.
Tetsuya
T
Ishikawa
London Centre for Nanotechnology, University College London, 17-19 Gordon Street, WC1H 0AH, UK. Research Complex at Harwell, Harwell Campus, Didcot, Oxford OX11 0DE, UK.
Ian K
IK
Robinson
JILA, University of Colorado, and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309, USA.
Margaret M
MM
Murnane