Single particle X-ray diffractive imaging

In nanotechnology, strategies for the creation and manipulation of nanoparticles in the gas phase are critically important for surface modification and substrate-free characterization. Recent coherent diffractive imaging with intense femtosecond X-ray pulses has verified the capability of single-shot imaging of nanoscale objects at suboptical resolutions beyond the radiation-induced damage threshold. By intercepting electrospray-generated particles with a single 15 femtosecond soft-X-ray pulse, we demonstrate diffractive imaging of a nanoscale specimen in free flight for the first time, an important step toward imaging uncrystallized biomolecules.