Quantum Imaging with Incoherently Scattered Light from a Free-Electron Laser

The advent of accelerator-driven free-electron lasers (FEL) has opened new avenues for high-resolution structure determination via diffraction methods that go far beyond conventional x-ray crystallography methods. These techniques rely on coherent scattering processes that require the maintenance of...

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Published inarXiv.org
Main Authors Schneider, Raimund, Mehringer, Thomas, Mercurio, Giuseppe, Wenthaus, Lukas, Classen, Anton, Brenner, Günter, Gorobtsov, Oleg, Benz, Adrian, Bhatti, Daniel, Bocklage, Lars, Fischer, Birgit, Lazarev, Sergey, Obukhov, Yuri, Schlage, Kai, Skopintsev, Petr, Wagner, Jochen, Waldmann, Felix, Willing, Svenja, Zaluzhnyy, Ivan, Wurth, Wilfried, Vartanyants, Ivan A, Röhlsberger, Ralf, Joachim von Zanthier
Format Paper Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Ithaca Cornell University Library, arXiv.org 02.10.2017
Subjects
Coherent scattering
Correlation analysis
Crystallography
Elastic scattering
Fluorescence
Free electron lasers
Imaging
Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors
Physics - Quantum Physics
Spatial resolution
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Summary:The advent of accelerator-driven free-electron lasers (FEL) has opened new avenues for high-resolution structure determination via diffraction methods that go far beyond conventional x-ray crystallography methods. These techniques rely on coherent scattering processes that require the maintenance of first-order coherence of the radiation field throughout the imaging procedure. Here we show that higher-order degrees of coherence, displayed in the intensity correlations of incoherently scattered x-rays from an FEL, can be used to image two-dimensional objects with a spatial resolution close to or even below the Abbe limit. This constitutes a new approach towards structure determination based on incoherent processes, including Compton scattering, fluorescence emission or wavefront distortions, generally considered detrimental for imaging applications. Our method is an extension of the landmark intensity correlation measurements of Hanbury Brown and Twiss to higher than second-order paving the way towards determination of structure and dynamics of matter in regimes where coherent imaging methods have intrinsic limitations.
ISSN:2331-8422
DOI:10.48550/arxiv.1710.01155