X-ray cross-correlation analysis of disordered systems: potentials and limitations

TL;DR

This paper reviews recent theoretical advances in x-ray cross-correlation analysis (XCCA) for disordered systems, demonstrating its ability to recover particle structures and reveal local 3D structures beyond standard scattering methods.

Contribution

It summarizes theoretical developments in Fourier analysis of XCCA and demonstrates its application to 2D and 3D disordered systems for structural recovery.

Findings

Single particle structure can be reconstructed from 2D disordered systems.

XCCA can extract local 3D structural information inaccessible to standard scattering.

Simulations validate the effectiveness of XCCA in structural analysis.

Abstract

Angular x-ray cross-correlation analysis (XCCA) is an approach to study the structure of disordered systems using the results of x-ray scattering experiments. In this paper we summarize recent theoretical developments related to the Fourier analysis of the cross-correlation functions. Results of our simulations demonstrate the application of XCCA to two- and three-dimensional (2D and 3D) disordered systems of particles. We show that the structure of a single particle can be recovered using x-ray data collected from a 2D disordered system of identical particles. We also demonstrate that valuable structural information about the local structure of 3D systems, inaccessible from a standard small-angle x-ray scattering experiment, can be resolved using XCCA.