XFEL coherent diffraction imaging for weakly scattering particles using heterodyne interference

The spatial resolution of x-ray free-electron laser (XFEL) coherent diffraction imaging is currently limited by the fluence of XFELs. Here, we clarify this issue by systematically studying the diffraction with a SPring-8 angstrom compact free electron laser XFEL on gold nanoparticles of size from 10 nm to 80 nm in water solution. The coherent x-ray diffraction patterns obtained from single XFEL pulses were quantitatively analyzed using a small-angle x-ray scattering scheme along with computer simulations. The results show that the detectability of Au nanoparticles can be described by a “master curve” as a function of total electron density, particle size, and x-ray fluence. The difficulty in detecting a small particle under the current XFEL fluence, however, could be largely eliminated by the image enhancement effect through interference from a strong scattering nanoparticle nearby. We investigate this image enhancement effect by quantitatively analyzing the two-particle scattering from Au nanoparticles, and further, applying it to detect a weak biological object of influenza virus with the aid of an Au nanoparticle.