Single-Molecule Imaging with X-Ray Free-Electron Lasers: Dream or Reality?
Single-Molecule Imaging with X-Ray Free-Electron Lasers: Dream or Reality?
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DOI：
10.1103/physrevlett.106.105504
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发表时间：
2011-03-09
影响因子：
8.6
通讯作者：
Ruocco, G.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Fratalocchi, A.;Ruocco, G.
X射线自由电子激光器（XFEL）是革命性的光子源，其超短，明亮的脉冲预计将允许单分子衍射实验提供非周期性物体原子长度尺度的结构信息。然而，这一最终目标目前受到几个具有挑战性的问题的阻碍，这些问题基本上涉及样品损伤、库仑爆炸和非线性的作用。通过采用一个原始的从头算方法，我们解决这些问题表明，XFEL为基础的单分子成像将只可能与几百个长的阿秒脉冲，由于显着的辐射损伤和形成的首选多孤子集群重塑的整体电子密度的分子系统在飞秒尺度。
X-ray free-electron lasers (XFEL) are revolutionary photon sources, whose ultrashort, brilliant pulses are expected to allow single-molecule diffraction experiments providing structural information on the atomic length scale of nonperiodic objects. This ultimate goal, however, is currently hampered by several challenging questions basically concerning sample damage, Coulomb explosion, and the role of nonlinearity. By employing an original ab initio approach, we address these issues showing that XFEL-based single-molecule imaging will be only possible with a few-hundred long attosecond pulses, due to significant radiation damage and the formation of preferred multisoliton clusters which reshape the overall electronic density of the molecular system at the femtosecond scale.