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Directional dark field for nanoscale full-field transmission X-ray microscopy
Citation Link: https://doi.org/10.15480/882.17086
Publikationstyp
Journal Article
Date Issued
2026-05-08
Sprache
English
Author(s)
John, Dominik
Qi, Peng
David, Christian
Tangl, Stefan
Singh, Kritika
TORE-DOI
Journal
Volume
15
Article Number
223
Citation
Light: Science & Applications 15: 223 (2026)
Publisher DOI
Publisher
Nature
Peer Reviewed
true
Dark-field X-ray imaging visualizes structural inhomogeneities through small-angle scattering, but existing directional methods are confined to the micrometer scale. While recent advances have extended dark-field capabilities to nanoscale transmission X-ray microscopy, directional scattering retrieval - critical for characterizing anisotropic nanostructures - has remained inaccessible for imaging resolutions in the sub-micrometer scale. Here, we demonstrate the first directional dark-field setup for nanoimaging, achieving orientation mapping of scattering features below the spatial resolution limit. Our method is experimentally simple to implement with existing transmission X-ray microscopy setups. We validate its performance by successfully resolving sub-resolution test structure orientations, cross-correlating orientational changes within hierarchical nanoporous materials, and mapping the directional arrangement of hydroxyapatite nanocrystals 30 - 70 nm within human tooth enamel. By utilizing shadow regions in the optical configuration, we further extend the detectable scattering vector range, demonstrating a pathway toward size-selective dark-field imaging. This advancement enables the quantitative structural characterization of anisotropic nanomaterials, which are critical to biomineralization, advanced materials, and nanotechnology applications.
Subjects
physics.optics
physics.ins-det
DDC Class
600: Technology
Funding(s)
Publication version
publishedVersion
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Name
s41377-026-02263-z.pdf
Type
Main Article
Size
4.01 MB
Format
Adobe PDF