X-Ray Cross-Correlation Analysis of Disordered Ensembles of Particles: Potentials and Limitations

Figure 2

A concept of recovery of the structure of a single particle using X-ray scattering data from many particles. A large number 𝑀 of realizations of a disordered system (a) composed of many identical particles is used to collect 𝑀 diffraction patterns (b). X-ray cross-correlation analysis is applied to this X-ray data set to recover a diffraction pattern (c) corresponding to a single particle. The structure of a single particle (d) is determined applying phase retrieval algorithms to the recovered diffraction pattern (c).