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Updated: Mar 14, 2026

On-Chip Crystallization and Large-Scale Serial Diffraction at Room Temperature
Published on: March 11, 2022
Revealing Three-Dimensional Structure of an Individual Colloidal Crystal Grain by Coherent X-Ray Diffractive Imaging
A G Shabalin1,2, J-M Meijer3, R Dronyak1
1Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY, Notkestr. 85, D-22607 Hamburg, Germany.
Abstract:
We present results of a coherent x-ray diffractive imaging experiment performed on a single colloidal crystal grain. The full three-dimensional (3D) reciprocal space map measured by an azimuthal rotational scan contained several orders of Bragg reflections together with the coherent interference signal between them. Applying the iterative phase retrieval approach, the 3D structure of the crystal grain was reconstructed and positions of individual colloidal particles were resolved. As a result, an exact stacking sequence of hexagonal close-packed layers including planar and linear defects were identified.
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