ReFIXED: Resonant and Fluorescent Incoherent X-ray Emission and Diffraction

The project develops the technique of incoherent diffractive imaging, towards determination of atomic and electronic structure of condensed matter and molecules.

The method uses ultrashort and intense pulses of X-ray lasers to probe the structure of samples before these would turn into plasma due to the extreme radiation dose.

Elastically scattered X-ray are routinely used for coherent imaging, here we pursue the use of X-ray fluorescence from specific atoms to gain further structural information.

X-ray fluorescence photons emitted from different atoms will interfere if they are indisinguishable on femtosecond time scales.

We aim to develop intensity interferometry of fluorescence from transient metals to gain fundamental insights into ultrafast X-ray physics, to understand mechanisms of transient resonances and how they affect coherence of X-ray emission from complex plasma environments.

We plan to use Machine Learning to assist in understanding X-ray driven plasma formation and gain knowledge about practical realisation of experiments, optimise conditions to extract novel structural and spectroscopic information.

This study is at the border between physics and biology, and builds on our experience in Uppsala in ultrafast X-ray imaging of proteins, paired with the local expertise in X-ray spectroscopy.

We envision this as a complementary method suited to study biological systems, in particular proteins with metallic clusters that catalyse fundamental chemical reactions.