Ensemble Diffraction Microscopy: An Imaging Technique That Allows High-Resolution Diffraction Imaging Using Both Totally and Partially Coherent Sources

Coherent diffraction microscopy (CDM) is a potential approach to image micromaterials at atomic resolution without crystals. Due to the lack of high-angle scattering, the achieved resolution is limited to several nanometers. Small-angle scattering allows researchers to reveal high-resolution 3D structures of specimens by fitting 1D diffraction signals. However, prerequisite 3D models and non-unique solutions restrict the potential to image general specimens. Under the assumption of an ensemble containing large amounts of identical specimens with the same orientation, the intensity distribution of the diffraction pattern of the whole ensemble is approximated to the form factor of a single specimen multiplied by the number of identical specimens. Since the diffraction intensities are contributed from the whole ensemble, the signal can be significantly extended to high-frequency regions. The feasibility of ensemble diffraction microscopy (EDM) was demonstrated by a designed sample using both totally and partially coherent X-ray sources at Taiwan Photon Source (TPS). The reconstructed images show excellent consistency with the image of a scanning electron microscope. This work represents a new protocol for directly characterizing the structures of nanomaterials, or potentially biomacromolecules, from accumulated X-ray scattering data.