Lensless X-ray holography achieves ten times better resolution
February 18, 2005 | Source: KurzweilAI
Researchers have developed a “lensless X-ray holography” technique to take X-ray images with 10 times better spatial resolution than can be achieved with current X-ray lenses and at ultra-fast speeds.
The technique works by shining a coherent beam of X-ray light through two adjacent holes: one containing the sample to be studied, the other a tiny “reference” hole. The scattered light from both holes overlays to form a single, holographic diffraction pattern. Holography maps the intensities of the light, as do normal diffraction patterns, and also encodes information about the phases of the light that is otherwise intrinsically lost.
The information is decoded by a Fourier transformation, yielding a complete image of the sample.
Areas of investigation include proteins attaching to each other step by step and polymer chains assembling into ordered clusters.