Source: XFEL: Brilliant X-ray laser comes online - BBC News . . . the light generated by the XFEL is about a billion times brighter than those facilities. What also sets the XFEL apart is the super-fast time structure in its flashes. The machine will deliver 100 billion trillion (100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000) X-ray photons in a pulse lasting just 50 femtoseconds (0.000,000,000,000,05 sec), and it can repeat this 27,000 times a second. It allows for time-resolved investigations that are beyond what is possible in standard synchrotrons. For example, scientists will use a jet to stream their samples in front of the beam, priming them with another laser so that chemical reactions are triggered at just the right moment to be caught by the pulses. . . . I knew about the technology but gosh darn, what a great system. Bob Wilson
X-ray vision as a simplifying concept means that a dense structure can be imaged even if underneath a less-dense structure. We experience this directly in medical settings. The Superman version was only slightly more tethered to science than comic-book x-ray glasses. This application offers relatively low spatial resolution. To improve that one, must crystallise (freeze) the structure because otherwise it wiggles. Also you must use wavelengths similar to atomic dimensions. Such photons have enough energy to damage living parts of bone (teeth, etc.) impeding 'imaging' of living organisms. For both time and energy considerations. Topic here is XFEL that can generate a wide range of wavelengths (not new) with very short pulses (new). This means you don't need to freeze. Examine molecular structure of biological materials among others. Examine structural details of reactions between molecules. Missing in above explanation. The x-ray wavelengths utilized are still capable of ionizing atoms and breaking chemical bonds. Heavy hammers. Workarounds (it seems) are very small photon fluxes, and highly sensitive detectors for scattered photons. Those were not apparent from 'light' reading of XFEL website. === In classical x-ray crystallography, results appear in inverse space. This is potentially amusing and always confusing.
Good point! Rapidly pulsed X-rays might just show how x-rays obliterate the target. Still, a new tool for material science. Bob Wilson
