Thermus thermophilus polyploid cells directly imaged by X-ray laser diffraction.

Thermus thermophilus is reportedly polyploid and carries four to five identical genome copies per cell, based on molecular biological experiments. To directly detect polyploidy in this bacterium, we performed live cell imaging by X-ray free-electron laser (XFEL) diffraction and observed its internal structures. The use of femtosecond XFEL pulses enables snapshots of live, undamaged cells.

Femtosecond X-ray Laser Reveals Intact Sea-Island Structures of Metastable Solid-State Electrolytes for Batteries.

Experimental characterization of the nanostructure of metastable functional materials has attracted significant attention with recent advances in computational materials discovery. However, since metastable glass-ceramics are easily damaged by irradiation, damage-free nanoimaging has not been realized thus far. Herein, we propose novel high-contrast coherent diffractive imaging that quantitatively analyzes the intact internal nanostructure of metastable glass-ceramics using femtosecond X-ray pulses.

Micro-liquid enclosure array and its semi-automated assembling system for x-ray free-electron laser diffractive imaging of samples in solution.

We developed micro-liquid enclosure arrays (MLEAs) for holding solution samples in coherent diffractive imaging (CDI) using x-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs). Hundreds of fully isolated micro-liquid enclosures are arranged in a single MLEA chip for efficient measurement, where each enclosure is destroyed after exposure to a single XFEL pulse. A semi-automated MLEA assembling system was also developed to enclose solution samples into MLEAs efficiently at high precision.

Design of a liquid cell toward three-dimensional imaging of unidirectionally-aligned particles in solution using X-ray free-electron lasers.

X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs) opened up a possibility for molecular-scale single particle imaging (SPI) without the need for crystallization. In SPI experiments, the orientation of each particle has to be determined from the measured diffraction pattern. Preparing unidirectionally-aligned particles can facilitate the determination of the sample orientation.