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The bright ultrafast pulses of X-ray Free-Electron Lasers allow investigation into the structure of matter under extreme conditions. We have used single pulses to ionize and probe water as it undergoes a phase transition from liquid to plasma. We report changes in the structure of liquid water on a femtosecond time scale when irradiated by single 6.86 keV X-ray pulses of more than 106 J/cm2. These observations are supported by simulations based on molecular dynamics and plasma dynamics of a water system that is rapidly ionized and driven out of equilibrium. This exotic ionic and disordered state with the density of a liquid is suggested to be structurally different from a neutral thermally disordered state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diffraction imaging of nonequilibrium dynamics at atomic resolution is becoming possible with X-ray free-electron lasers. However, there are unresolved problems with applying this method to objects that are confined in only one dimension. Here I show that reliable onedimensional coherent diffraction imaging is possible by splicing together images recovered from different time delays in an optical pump X-ray probe experiment. The time and space evolution of antiferromagnetic order in a vibrationally excited complex oxide heterostructure is recovered from time-resolved measurements of a resonant soft X-ray diffraction peak. Midinfrared excitation of the substrate is shown to lead to a demagnetization front that propagates at a velocity exceeding the speed of sound, a critical observation for the understanding of driven phase transitions in complex condensed matter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel algorithm for indexing multiple crystals in snapshot X-ray diffraction images, especially suited for serial crystallography data, is presented. The algorithm, FELIX, utilizes a generalized parametrization of the Rodrigues-Frank space, in which all crystal systems can be represented without singularities. The new algorithm is shown to be capable of indexing more than ten crystals per image in simulations of cubic, tetragonal and monoclinic crystal diffraction patterns. It is also used to index an experimental serial crystallography dataset from lysozyme microcrystals. The increased number of indexed crystals is shown to result in a better signal-to-noise ratio, and fewer images are needed to achieve the same data quality as when indexing one crystal per image. The relative orientations between the multiple crystals indexed in an image show a slight tendency of the lysozme microcrystals to adhere on (10) facets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the impact of planar faults in finite face-centered-cubic (f.c.c.) crystallites. It mentions that the probability correlation function determine the impact of faulting on the f.c.c. Crystallites powder pattern. It states that the application of modern reciprocal-space modeling techniques was of great use for describing the effect of faulting in crystallites powders.

The Debye function was used to simulate the X-ray powder diffraction patterns from loose-packed systems of nanocrystals. The resulting patterns contain local atomic lattice information in the wide-angle region as well as long range, inter-particle structure features in the small-angle region. Both monodisperse and polydisperse systems of particles were considered in this study. The minimum number of particles necessary in the system to generate an accurate pattern is shown to increase with the system polydispersity. Diffraction patterns from a powder of uniformly oriented particles were simulated to show that the observation of coherency in bulk nanocrystalline materials is unlikely. Furthermore, the accuracy of the Williamson-Hall plot was studied by analyzing the simulated patterns. Whereas this study was focused on systems of loose particles, the results also might suggest some guidelines and considerations when diffraction patterns are simulated from atomistic models of nanocrystalline bulk materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the use of highly coherent femtosecond X-ray pulses from a free-electron laser, it is possible to record protein nanocrystal diffraction patterns with far more information than is present in conventional crystallographic diffraction data. It has been suggested that diffraction phases may be retrieved from such data via iterative algorithms, without the use of a priori information and without restrictions on resolution. Here, we investigate the extension of this approach to nanocrystals with edge terminations that produce partial unit cells, and hence cannot be described by a common repeating unit cell. In this situation, the phase problem described in previous work must be reformulated. We demonstrate an approximate solution to this phase problem for crystals with random edge terminations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High‐resolution Bragg diffraction from aerosolized single granulovirus nanocrystals using an X‐ray free‐electron laser is demonstrated. The outer dimensions of the in‐vacuum aerosol injector components are identical to conventional liquid‐microjet nozzles used in serial diffraction experiments, which allows the injector to be utilized with standard mountings. As compared with liquid‐jet injection, the X‐ray scattering background is reduced by several orders of magnitude by the use of helium carrier gas rather than liquid. Such reduction is required for diffraction measurements of small macromolecular nanocrystals and single particles. High particle speeds are achieved, making the approach suitable for use at upcoming high‐repetition‐rate facilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Serial crystallography experiments at X-ray free-electron lasers can utilize specially designed ceramic nozzles to generate a strongly focused liquid jet of sample. Several nozzle design options have been evaluated and a concept using a sharpened glass capillary mounted in a self-centering ceramic nozzles is detailed. Filling simulations and tool construction are given for micro ceramic injection molding manufacture of the nozzles. Produced parts are found to meet the specifications for nozzle dimensions and bearing features. Functionality tests show superior performance with respect to liquid jet straightness and reproducibility compared to flame polished glass nozzles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To understand how molecules function in biological systems, new methods are required to obtain atomic resolution structures from biological material under physiological conditions. Intense femtosecond-duration pulses from X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs) can outrun most damage processes, vastly increasing the tolerable dose before the specimen is destroyed. This in turn allows structure determination from crystals much smaller and more radiation sensitive than previously considered possible, allowing data collection from room temperature structures and avoiding structural changes due to cooling. Regardless, high-resolution structures obtained from XFEL data mostly use crystals far larger than 1 μm3 in volume, whereas the X-ray beam is often attenuated to protect the detector from damage caused by intense Bragg spots. Here, we describe the 2 Å resolution structure of native nanocrystalline granulovirus occlusion bodies (OBs) that are less than 0.016 μm3 in volume using the full power of the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) and a dose up to 1.3 GGy per crystal. The crystalline shell of granulovirus OBs consists, on average, of about 9,000 unit cells, representing the smallest protein crystals to yield a high-resolution structure by X-ray crystallography to date. The XFEL structure shows little to no evidence of radiation damage and is more complete than a model determined using synchrotron data from recombinantly produced, much larger, cryocooled granulovirus granulin microcrystals. Our measurements suggest that it should be possible, under ideal experimental conditions, to obtain data from protein crystals with only 100 unit cells in volume using currently available XFELs and suggest that single-molecule imaging of individual biomolecules could almost be within reach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CrystFEL is a suite of programs for processing data from `serial crystallography' experiments, which are usually performed using X-ray free-electron lasers (FELs) but also increasingly with other X-ray sources. The CrystFEL software suite has been under development since 2009, just before the first hard FEL experiments were performed, and has been significantly updated and improved since then. This article describes the most important improvements which have been made to CrystFEL since the first release version. These changes include the addition of new programs to the suite, the ability to resolve `indexing ambiguities' and several ways to improve the quality of the integrated data by more accurately modelling the underlying diffraction physics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Proteins that contain metal cofactors are expected to be highly radiation sensitive since the degree of X-ray absorption correlates with the presence of high-atomic-number elements and X-ray energy. To explore the effects of local damage in serial femtosecond crystallography (SFX), Clostridium ferredoxin was used as a model system. The protein contains two [4Fe-4S] clusters that serve as sensitive probes for radiation-induced electronic and structural changes. High-dose room-temperature SFX datasets were collected at the Linac Coherent Light Source of ferredoxin microcrystals. Difference electron density maps calculated from high-dose SFX and synchrotron data show peaks at the iron positions of the clusters, indicative of decrease of atomic scattering factors due to ionization. The electron density of the two [4Fe-4S] clusters differs in the FEL data, but not in the synchrotron data. Since the clusters differ in their detailed architecture, this observation is suggestive of an influence of the molecular bonding and geometry on the atomic displacement dynamics following initial photoionization. The experiments are complemented by plasma code calculations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The success of diffraction experiments from weakly scattering samples strongly depends on achieving an optimal signal-to-noise ratio. This is particularly important in single-particle imaging experiments where diffraction signals are typically very weak and the experiments are often accompanied by significant background scattering. A simple way to tremendously reduce background scattering by placing an aperture downstream of the sample has been developed and its application in a single-particle X-ray imaging experiment at FLASH is demonstrated. Using the concept of a post-sample aperture it was possible to reduce the background scattering levels by two orders of magnitude. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary Serial protein crystallography was developed at X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs) and is now also being applied at storage ring facilities. Robust strategies for the growth and optimization of microcrystals are needed to advance the field. Here we illustrate a generic strategy for recovering high-density homogeneous samples of microcrystals starting from conditions known to yield large (macro) crystals of the photosynthetic reaction center of Blastochloris viridis (RC vir ). We first crushed these crystals prior to multiple rounds of microseeding. Each cycle of microseeding facilitated improvements in the RC vir serial femtosecond crystallography (SFX) structure from 3.3-Å to 2.4-Å resolution. This approach may allow known crystallization conditions for other proteins to be adapted to exploit novel scientific opportunities created by serial crystallography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This corrects the article DOI: 10.1038/srep44628 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Serial femtosecond crystallography requires reliable and efficient delivery of fresh crystals across the beam of an X-ray free-electron laser over the course of an experiment. We introduce a double-flow focusing nozzle to meet this challenge, with significantly reduced sample consumption, while improving jet stability over previous generations of nozzles. We demonstrate its use to determine the first room-temperature structure of RNA polymerase II at high resolution, revealing new structural details. Moreover, the double flow-focusing nozzles were successfully tested with three other protein samples and the first room temperature structure of an extradiol ring-cleaving dioxygenase was solved by utilizing the improved operation and characteristics of these devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]