Cryo Soft X-ray Diffraction Microscopy with Biological Specimens

X-ray diffraction microscopy (XDM) is a lensless imaging tech-nique well suited to studying thick biological samples at high res-olution. Because x-rays have relatively short wavelengths, x-ray microscopes have the potential to achieve higher resolution than visible light microscopes. X-rays have high penetration ability, which enables x-ray microscopes to image samples that are too thick for electron microscopes. X-ray photons can be considered to interact with objects only once in most cases, which simpli-fies the data analysis process. Furthermore, by dispensing with the resolution and efficiency limitations imposed by x-ray optics, XDM can provide images with a resolution only confined by the maximum diffraction angle that can be collected and the sample’s radiation tolerance. iii We demonstrated through numerical simulations that XDM ha