Coherent diffraction and holographic imaging of individual biomolecules using low-energy electrons

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that low-energy electrons can be used to image individual biomolecules at atomic resolution, overcoming radiation damage issues, through holography and coherent diffraction imaging techniques.

Contribution

It introduces two experimental schemes for imaging biomolecules with low-energy electrons and compares their effectiveness, showing successful images of individual molecules.

Findings

Low-energy electrons enable imaging of biomolecules with reduced radiation damage.

Both holography and coherent diffraction imaging successfully produce images of individual molecules.

The paper provides a comparative analysis of two imaging techniques for biomolecular imaging.

Abstract

Modern microscopy techniques are aimed at imaging an individual molecule at atomic resolution. Here we show that low-energy electrons with kinetic energies of 50-250 eV offer a possibility of overcome the problem of radiation damage, and obtaining images of individual biomolecules. Two experimental schemes for obtaining images of individual molecules, holography and coherent diffraction imaging, are discussed and compared. Images of individual molecules obtained by both techniques, using low-energy electrons, are shown.