X-ray imaging techniques have proven invaluable to study biological systems at high resolution due to the penetration power and short wavelength of this radiation. In practice, the resolution and sensitivity of current X-ray imaging techniques are not limited by the performance of optics or image-recovery methods but by radiation damage. We propose the use of Compton (inelastic) X-ray scattering for high-resolution cellular imaging and provide a study of a scanning microscope geometry that requires a dose to achieve a given resolution that is three orders of magnitude lower than for coherent (elastic) scattering. We find that the dose per imaging signal is minimized at a photon energy of 64 keV. This corresponds to a short enough wavelength (0.02 nm) to provide nanometer transverse resolution and micrometer depth of field for tomographic imaging of whole cells. The microscope could be implemented at future high-energy and high-brightness synchrotron-radiation facilities to provide images of unsectioned and unlabeled cells in their native conditions at enough detail to bridge the techniques of super-resolution optical microscopy and cryo-electron microscopy.

中文翻译：

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剂量有效的康普顿X射线显微镜

由于这种辐射的穿透能力和短波长，X射线成像技术已被证明对高分辨率研究生物系统具有无价的作用。在实践中，当前的X射线成像技术的分辨率和灵敏度不受光学性能或图像恢复方法的限制，而受到辐射损伤的限制。我们建议使用康普顿（非弹性）X射线散射进行高分辨率细胞成像，并提供扫描显微镜几何形状的研究，该几何形状需要一定剂量才能达到给定分辨率，其分辨率比相干（弹性）低三个数量级散射。我们发现在64 keV的光子能量下，每个成像信号的剂量最小。这对应于足够短的波长（0。02 nm）为整个细胞的层析成像提供纳米横向分辨率和微米景深。该显微镜可以在未来的高能量和高亮度同步辐射设备上使用，以提供其原始条件下未切片的和未标记的细胞的图像，并提供足够的细节，以弥合超分辨率光学显微镜和低温电子显微镜的技术。