Speaker
Description
Ionization is generally considered detrimental to the quality of single exposure images recorded with ultra bright
modern X-ray sources, such as X-ray free electron lasers (XFELs). We conducted a X-ray coherent diffraction
imaging (CDI) study at the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) on single rare gas nanoparticles. Our results indicate
that the X-ray scattering cross section may increase due to transient ionic resonances before structural damage
degrades the image. We also observe that the samples become increasingly transparent if the pulse parameters
correspond to typical values of single particle imaging experiments. Dynamical electronic structure calculations
attribute the observed effects to electronic damage and predict amplification of X-ray coherent scattering of up to two
orders of magnitude compared to the neutral scattering cross section might be possible. We also demonstrate that
ionic resonances are present in images recorded with sub-fs pulses which proves that transient resonances can be
exploited before ionic damage.
