Coherent X-ray diffractive imaging on the single-cell-level of microbial samples

Scanning X-Ray Nanodiffraction on Dictyostelium discoideum

“…If exposed to ambient air the ultracold samples easily accumulate ice by condensation and, even more critical, their temperature quickly rises above the glass transition temperature which causes the formation of crystalline ice. The mounting procedure for cryogenic samples is delicate, as the sample must never exit cryogenic environments (gaseous or liquid ultracool nitrogen) to prevent the sample temperature from rising above the glass transition temperature T glass , that is T glass,H 2 0 = 136 K [14] for water. Above this temperature the vitrified water matrix can begin to turn crystalline, resulting in cell damage and strong scattering contributions from the formed crystallites.…”

“…Recent developments in coherent diffractive imaging (CDI) now allow phase contrast imaging from freeze-dried and frozen-hydrated samples under cryogenic conditions [12][13][14][15], but these methods do not yet reach the resolution found in diffraction experiments.…”