Single-particle incoherent diffractive imaging and amplified spontaneous emission in copper nanocubes

2025/12/05 by Wollweber, Tamme, Dutta, Sarodi Jonak, Shen, Zhou +26 · 1 citation
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Electron Microscopy Techniques and Applications #Advanced X-ray Imaging Techniques #Crystallography and Radiation Phenomena #FOS: Physical sciences #Optics (physics.optics)

paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2512.06110

openalex publication_date 2025/12/05 · openalex created_date 2025/12/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

We demonstrate element-specific incoherent diffractive imaging (IDI) of single copper nanocubes using intensity correlations of Kα fluorescence at a hard X-ray free-electron laser. Combining single particle diffraction classification with IDI, we retrieve the form factor of 88 nm cubes with 20 nm resolution, extending IDI to the destructive single-particle regime with a large gain in resolution. IDI visibility drops sharply above a fluence of 10² J/cm², consistent with the assumption of amplified spontaneous emission. Our results reveal fundamental limits for high-fluence nanoimaging towards future single-particle X-ray imaging.

Citations

• Nonlinear phenomena in X-ray fluorescence from single nanoparticles under extreme conditions
• Fluorescence intensity correlations enable 3D imaging without sample rotations
• Nanoscale X-ray imaging with high spectral sensitivity using fluorescence intensity correlations
• Phase Retrieval in Incoherent Diffractive Imaging using higher-order photon correlation functions
• Stochastic modeling of x-ray superfluorescence
• 3D diffractive imaging of nanoparticle ensembles using an X-ray laser

Cited by

• Nonlinear phenomena in X-ray fluorescence from single nanoparticles under extreme conditions

Related

• Nonlinear phenomena in X-ray fluorescence from single nanoparticles under extreme conditions
• Nanoscale X-ray imaging with high spectral sensitivity using fluorescence intensity correlations
• 3D diffractive imaging of nanoparticle ensembles using an X-ray laser
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• Single-Shot 3D Diffractive Imaging of Core-Shell Nanoparticles with Elemental Specificity