Li oxide garnets are among the most promising candidates for solid-state electrolytes in novel Li ion and Li metal based battery concepts. Cubic Li7La3Zr2O12 stabilized by a partial substitution of Zr4+ by Bi5+ has not been the focus of research yet, despite the fact that Bi5+ would be a cost-effective alternative to other stabilizing cations such as Nb5+ and Ta5+. In this study, Li7-xLa3Zr2-xB...

We report that two-dimensional (2D) sub-diffraction-limited images can be theoretically reconstructed by a new metamaterial far-field superlens. The metamaterial far-field superlens, composed of a metal-dielectric multilayer and a one-dimensional (1D) subwavelength grating, can work over a broad range of visible wavelengths intrinsically. The imaging principle and the reconstruction process are...

We determine the absolute electron density of a lithographically grown nanostructure with 25 nm resolution by combining hard x-ray Fourier transform holography with iterative phase retrieval methods. While holography immediately reveals an unambiguous image of the object, we deploy in addition iterative phase retrieval algorithms for pushing the resolution close to the diffraction limit. The us...

The limited resolution of a conventional optical imaging system stems from the fact that the fine feature information of an object is carried by evanescent waves, which exponentially decays in space and thus cannot reach the imaging plane. We introduce here an adiabatic lens, which utilizes a geometrically conformal surface to mediate the interference of slowly decompressed electromagnetic wave...

This issue of Journal of Applied Crystallography includes some highlights of the 11th Biennial Conference on High-Resolution X-ray Diffraction and Imaging (XTOP), held in St Petersburg in 2012.

The phase problem is inherent to crystallographic, astronomical and optical imaging where only the intensity of the scattered signal is detected and the phase information is lost and must somehow be recovered to reconstruct the object's structure. Modern imaging techniques at the molecular scale rely on utilizing novel coherent light sources like X-ray free electron lasers for the ultimate goal...

The Rayleigh criterion is generally regarded as a fundamental limit and due to its practical accuracy in predicting the performance of optical imaging systems, it has unfortunately become accepted as a de-facto physical law. In this work, we will show that this limit is simply a very good rule of thumb, which under proper conditions typically related to the signal-to-noise (SNR) of the sensor, ...

Coherent x-ray diffraction microscopy is a method of imaging nonperiodic isolated objects at resolutions limited, in principle, by only the wavelength and largest scattering angles recorded. We demonstrate x-ray diffraction imaging with high resolution in all three dimensions, as determined by a quantitative analysis of the reconstructed volume images. These images are retrieved from the three-...

Theory predicts that with a very short and very intense X-ray pulse, the image of a single diffraction pattern may be recorded from a large macromolecule, a virus, or a nanocluster of proteins without the need for a crystal. A three-dimensional data set can be assembled from such images when many copies of the molecule are exposed to the beam one by one in random orientations. We outline a meth...

Diffraction images record angle-resolved distribution of scattered light from a particle excited by coherent light and can correlate highly with the 3D morphology of a particle. We present a jet-in-fluid design of flow chamber for acquisition of clear diffraction images in a laminar flow. Diffraction images of polystyrene spheres of different diameters were acquired and found to correlate highl...