Characterising dynamic material
8 Feb 2013
A technique based on ptychography has made fluctuations inside of materials visible.
Researchers claim to have developed a method that produces reliable images in spite of vibrations or fluctuations of an X-ray microscope and sample.
Pierre Thibault of the Technische Universitaet Muenchen and Andreas Menzel, a scientist at the Paul Scherrer Institute have produced a technique based on ptychography.
The new method combines the characterisation of dynamical states with high-resolution X-ray microscopy
The metgid makes it possible to distinguish effects originating from the contribution of different types of X-ray waves.
“We now not only can compensate for the vibrations in the microscope,” said Menzel. “We can even characterise fluctuations of the sample itself, even if they are much too fast to be seen with individual snapshots.”
“We needed to convince ourselves that the images we produced did indeed reflect accurately the samples,” added Thibault.
“We carried out computer simulations. They confirmed that effects of the instrument as well as of the sample itself, such as flows, switching events or mixed quantum states, can be characterised.”
The new method combines the characterisation of dynamical states with high-resolution X-ray microscopy.
One possible application is to analyse the changing magnetisation of individual bits in magnetic storage media with high storage density.
The interactions of such single magnetic bits or their thermal fluctuations, which ultimately determine the lifetime of magnetic data storage, could be visualised.
“In addition to its use in imaging,” said Thibault, “our analysis method also reveals a fundamental relationship to other disciplines: Microscopy and scientific disciplines such as quantum computing, previously regarded as independent, can benefit from each other here.”
