Determining electronic damage to biomolecular structures in x-ray free-electron-laser imaging experiments

Abstract

The use of femtosecond pulses produced by x-ray free-electron-laser (XFEL) sources to image the structures of biomolecules involves a competition between the elastic scattering of photons to form a diffraction pattern and the damage initiated by inelastic collisions with the target. Since the electron density of the biomolecule changes rapidly throughout its interaction with a femtosecond XFEL pulse, the diffraction process measured in "diffract and destroy" experiments is, at best, partially coherent. It has been established that a detailed knowledge of these electrodynamical processes may be used to ameliorate the effects of damage in diffractive imaging experiments. It is shown here that,..