Speaker
Description
The emergence of enhanced transverse coherence in X-rays has significantly expanded their applicability to structural investigations beyond well-ordered systems. When coherent X-rays scatter from disordered or random specimens, they produce characteristic speckle patterns in the diffraction images. These speckles encode rich information about structural disorder and fluctuations. By utilizing short-wavelength X-rays, finer structural features—down to the atomic scale—can be resolved through speckle analysis.
Coherent diffraction imaging (CDI) techniques, combined with advanced phase retrieval algorithms, enable the reconstruction of real-space images or charge density distributions directly from these speckle patterns, without the need for image-forming lenses. Since their initial demonstration at second-generation synchrotron sources, coherent imaging methods have undergone rapid development, now capable of resolving nanoscale structural details and capturing ultrafast dynamics on femtosecond timescales.
The arrival of fourth-generation synchrotron sources, with significantly enhanced brightness and coherence, is expected to usher in a new era of coherent X-ray science—one focused on disordered systems and far-from-equilibrium phenomena. In this talk, we will review the fundamental principles of coherent X-rays, present recent advances in coherent imaging techniques, and discuss emerging perspectives and opportunities in the study of structural disorder and ultrafast dynamics.
