Published in

American Association for the Advancement of Science, Science Advances, 8(9), 2023

DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.ade5839

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Three-dimensional femtosecond snapshots of isolated faceted nanostructures

This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

The structure and dynamics of isolated nanosamples in free flight can be directly visualized via single-shot coherent diffractive imaging using the intense and short pulses of x-ray free-electron lasers. Wide-angle scattering images encode three-dimensional (3D) morphological information of the samples, but its retrieval remains a challenge. Up to now, effective 3D morphology reconstructions from single shots were only achieved via fitting with highly constrained models, requiring a priori knowledge about possible geometries. Here, we present a much more generic imaging approach. Relying on a model that allows for any sample morphology described by a convex polyhedron, we reconstruct wide-angle diffraction patterns from individual silver nanoparticles. In addition to known structural motives with high symmetries, we retrieve imperfect shapes and agglomerates that were not previously accessible. Our results open unexplored routes toward true 3D structure determination of single nanoparticles and, ultimately, 3D movies of ultrafast nanoscale dynamics.