X-ray free-electron lasers are new x-ray sources that are revolutionising high resolution molecular imaging. These sources produce extremely bright and extremely brief x-ray pulses that can overcome limitations of crystal growth and radiation damage in traditional protein x-ray crystallography. They introduce a new paradigm in diffraction imaging in which the specimen is destroyed, but not before the diffraction data are collected, and that requires radically new forms of specimen delivery and data processing. An overview of biomolecular imaging using x-ray free-electron lasers is provided, as well as future prospects.
['Rick P. Millane', 'David H. Wojtas', 'Romain D. Arnal']
Extreme imaging: Macromolecular imaging using x-ray free-electron lasers