| 1. |
- Bielecki, Johan, 1982, et al.
(författare)
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Electrospray sample injection for single-particle imaging with x-ray lasers
- 2019
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Ingår i: Science advances. - : American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). - 2375-2548. ; 5:5
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The possibility of imaging single proteins constitutes an exciting challenge for x-ray lasers. Despite encouraging results on large particles, imaging small particles has proven to be difficult for two reasons: not quite high enough pulse intensity from currently available x-ray lasers and, as we demonstrate here, contamination of the aerosolized molecules by nonvolatile contaminants in the solution. The amount of contamination on the sample depends on the initial droplet size during aerosolization. Here, we show that, with our electrospray injector, we can decrease the size of aerosol droplets and demonstrate virtually contaminant-free sample delivery of organelles, small virions, and proteins. The results presented here, together with the increased performance of next-generation x-ray lasers, constitute an important stepping stone toward the ultimate goal of protein structure determination from imaging at room temperature and high temporal resolution.
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| 2. |
- Boll, Rebecca, et al.
(författare)
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Imaging molecular structure through femtosecond photoelectron diffraction on aligned and oriented gas-phase molecules
- 2014
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Ingår i: Faraday Discussions. - : Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC). - 1364-5498. ; 171, s. 57-80
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper gives an account of our progress towards performing femtosecond time-resolved photoelectron diffraction on gas-phase molecules in a pump-probe setup combining optical lasers and an X-ray free-electron laser. We present results of two experiments aimed at measuring photoelectron angular distributions of laser-aligned 1-ethynyl-4-fluorobenzene (C8H5F) and dissociating, laser-aligned 1,4-dibromobenzene (C6H4Br2) molecules and discuss them in the larger context of photoelectron diffraction on gas-phase molecules. We also show how the strong nanosecond laser pulse used for adiabatically laser-aligning the molecules influences the measured electron and ion spectra and angular distributions, and discuss how this may affect the outcome of future time-resolved photoelectron diffraction experiments.
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| 3. |
- Chapman, Henry N, et al.
(författare)
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Femtosecond X-ray protein nanocrystallography.
- 2011
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Ingår i: Nature. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1476-4687 .- 0028-0836. ; 470:7332, s. 73-7
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- X-ray crystallography provides the vast majority of macromolecular structures, but the success of the method relies on growing crystals of sufficient size. In conventional measurements, the necessary increase in X-ray dose to record data from crystals that are too small leads to extensive damage before a diffraction signal can be recorded. It is particularly challenging to obtain large, well-diffracting crystals of membrane proteins, for which fewer than 300 unique structures have been determined despite their importance in all living cells. Here we present a method for structure determination where single-crystal X-ray diffraction 'snapshots' are collected from a fully hydrated stream of nanocrystals using femtosecond pulses from a hard-X-ray free-electron laser, the Linac Coherent Light Source. We prove this concept with nanocrystals of photosystem I, one of the largest membrane protein complexes. More than 3,000,000 diffraction patterns were collected in this study, and a three-dimensional data set was assembled from individual photosystem I nanocrystals (∼200nm to 2μm in size). We mitigate the problem of radiation damage in crystallography by using pulses briefer than the timescale of most damage processes. This offers a new approach to structure determination of macromolecules that do not yield crystals of sufficient size for studies using conventional radiation sources or are particularly sensitive to radiation damage.
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| 4. |
- Gorkhover, Tais, et al.
(författare)
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Femtosecond and nanometre visualization of structural dynamics in superheated nanoparticles
- 2016
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Ingår i: Nature Photonics. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1749-4885 .- 1749-4893. ; 10:2, s. 93-97
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The ability to observe ultrafast structural changes in nanoscopic samples is essential for understanding non-equilibrium phenomena such as chemical reactions, matter under extreme conditions, ultrafast phase transitions and intense light-matter interactions. Established imaging techniques are limited either in time or spatial resolution and typically require samples to be deposited on a substrate, which interferes with the dynamics. Here, we show that coherent X-ray diffraction images from isolated single samples can be used to visualize femtosecond electron density dynamics. We recorded X-ray snapshot images from a nanoplasma expansion, a prototypical non-equilibrium phenomenon. Single Xe clusters are superheated using an intense optical laser pulse and the structural evolution of the sample is imaged with a single X-ray pulse. We resolved ultrafast surface softening on the nanometre scale at the plasma/vacuum interface within 100 fs of the heating pulse. Our study is the first time-resolved visualization of irreversible femtosecond processes in free, individual nanometre-sized samples.
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| 5. |
- Gorkhover, Tais, et al.
(författare)
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Femtosecond X-ray Fourier holography imaging of free-flying nanoparticles
- 2018
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Ingår i: Nature Photonics. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1749-4885 .- 1749-4893. ; 12:3, s. 150-153
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Ultrafast X-ray imaging on individual fragile specimens such as aerosols 1 , metastable particles 2 , superfluid quantum systems 3 and live biospecimens 4 provides high-resolution information that is inaccessible with conventional imaging techniques. Coherent X-ray diffractive imaging, however, suffers from intrinsic loss of phase, and therefore structure recovery is often complicated and not always uniquely defined 4,5 . Here, we introduce the method of in-flight holography, where we use nanoclusters as reference X-ray scatterers to encode relative phase information into diffraction patterns of a virus. The resulting hologram contains an unambiguous three-dimensional map of a virus and two nanoclusters with the highest lateral resolution so far achieved via single shot X-ray holography. Our approach unlocks the benefits of holography for ultrafast X-ray imaging of nanoscale, non-periodic systems and paves the way to direct observation of complex electron dynamics down to the attosecond timescale.
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| 6. |
- Ho, Phay J., et al.
(författare)
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The role of transient resonances for ultra-fast imaging of single sucrose nanoclusters
- 2020
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Ingår i: Nature Communications. - : NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP. - 2041-1723. ; 11
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Intense x-ray free-electron laser (XFEL) pulses hold great promise for imaging function in nanoscale and biological systems with atomic resolution. So far, however, the spatial resolution obtained from single shot experiments lags averaging static experiments. Here we report on a combined computational and experimental study about ultrafast diffractive imaging of sucrose clusters which are benchmark organic samples. Our theoretical model matches the experimental data from the water window to the keV x-ray regime. The large-scale dynamic scattering calculations reveal that transient phenomena driven by non-linear x-ray interaction are decisive for ultrafast imaging applications. Our study illuminates the complex interplay of the imaging process with the rapidly changing transient electronic structures in XFEL experiments and shows how computational models allow optimization of the parameters for ultrafast imaging experiments. 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.
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| 7. |
- Iwan, Bianca, et al.
(författare)
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Explosion, ion acceleration and molecular fragmentation of methane clusters in the pulsed beam of a free-electron laser
- 2012
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Ingår i: Physical Review A. Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics. - 1050-2947 .- 1094-1622. ; 86:3, s. 033201-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- X-ray lasers offer new possibilities for creating and probing extreme states of matter. We used intense and short x-ray pulses from the FLASH soft x-ray laser to trigger the explosions of CH4 and CD4 molecules and their clusters. The results show that the explosion dynamics depends on cluster size and indicate a transition from Coulomb explosion to hydrodynamic expansion in larger clusters. The explosion of CH4 and CD4 clusters shows a strong isotope effect: The heavier deuterons acquire higher kinetic energies than the lighter protons. This may be due to an extended inertial confinement of deuterons vs. protons near a rapidly charging cluster core during exposure.
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| 8. |
- Kuepper, Jochen, et al.
(författare)
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X-Ray Diffraction from Isolated and Strongly Aligned Gas-Phase Molecules with a Free-Electron Laser
- 2014
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Ingår i: Physical Review Letters. - 0031-9007 .- 1079-7114. ; 112:8, s. 083002-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We report experimental results on x-ray diffraction of quantum-state-selected and strongly aligned ensembles of the prototypical asymmetric rotor molecule 2,5-diiodobenzonitrile using the Linac Coherent Light Source. The experiments demonstrate first steps toward a new approach to diffractive imaging of distinct structures of individual, isolated gas-phase molecules. We confirm several key ingredients of single molecule diffraction experiments: the abilities to detect and count individual scattered x-ray photons in single shot diffraction data, to deliver state-selected, e.g., structural-isomer-selected, ensembles of molecules to the x-ray interaction volume, and to strongly align the scattering molecules. Our approach, using ultrashort x-ray pulses, is suitable to study ultrafast dynamics of isolated molecules.
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| 9. |
- Lundholm, Ida V., et al.
(författare)
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Considerations for three-dimensional image reconstruction from experimental data in coherent diffractive imaging
- 2018
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Ingår i: IUCrJ. - : International Union of Crystallography. - 2052-2525. ; 5, s. 531-541
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Diffraction before destruction using X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs) has the potential to determine radiation-damage-free structures without the need for crystallization. This article presents the three-dimensional reconstruction of the Melbournevirus from single-particle X-ray diffraction patterns collected at the LINAC Coherent Light Source (LCLS) as well as reconstructions from simulated data exploring the consequences of different kinds of experimental sources of noise. The reconstruction from experimental data suffers from a strong artifact in the center of the particle. This could be reproduced with simulated data by adding experimental background to the diffraction patterns. In those simulations, the relative density of the artifact increases linearly with background strength. This suggests that the artifact originates from the Fourier transform of the relatively flat background, concentrating all power in a central feature of limited extent. We support these findings by significantly reducing the artifact through background removal before the phase-retrieval step. Large amounts of blurring in the diffraction patterns were also found to introduce diffuse artifacts, which could easily be mistaken as biologically relevant features. Other sources of noise such as sample heterogeneity and variation of pulse energy did not significantly degrade the quality of the reconstructions. Larger data volumes, made possible by the recent inauguration of high repetition-rate XFELs, allow for increased signal-to-background ratio and provide a way to minimize these artifacts. The anticipated development of three-dimensional Fourier-volume-assembly algorithms which are background aware is an alternative and complementary solution, which maximizes the use of data.
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| 10. |
- Seibert, M. Marvin, et al.
(författare)
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Single mimivirus particles intercepted and imaged with an X-ray laser
- 2011
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Ingår i: Nature. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 470:7332, s. 78-81
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- X-ray lasers offer new capabilities in understanding the structure of biological systems, complex materials and matter under extreme conditions(1-4). Very short and extremely bright, coherent X-ray pulses can be used to outrun key damage processes and obtain a single diffraction pattern from a large macromolecule, a virus or a cell before the sample explodes and turns into plasma(1). The continuous diffraction pattern of non-crystalline objects permits oversampling and direct phase retrieval(2). Here we show that high-quality diffraction data can be obtained with a single X-ray pulse from a noncrystalline biological sample, a single mimivirus particle, which was injected into the pulsed beam of a hard-X-ray free-electron laser, the Linac Coherent Light Source(5). Calculations indicate that the energy deposited into the virus by the pulse heated the particle to over 100,000 K after the pulse had left the sample. The reconstructed exit wavefront (image) yielded 32-nm full-period resolution in a single exposure and showed no measurable damage. The reconstruction indicates inhomogeneous arrangement of dense material inside the virion. We expect that significantly higher resolutions will be achieved in such experiments with shorter and brighter photon pulses focused to a smaller area. The resolution in such experiments can be further extended for samples available in multiple identical copies.
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