Controlled beams of cryo-cooled protein-like nanoparticles

TL;DR

This paper introduces a cryogenic setup capable of producing and characterizing dense, controlled beams of protein-like nanoparticles, facilitating advanced imaging and nanoscience applications.

Contribution

The authors develop and demonstrate a novel cryogenic buffer-gas-cell-aerodynamic-lens system for generating and analyzing protein-sized nanoparticle beams in the gas phase.

Findings

Successful generation of shock-frozen nanoparticle beams including proteins.

Effective characterization using strong-field ionization and velocity-map imaging.

Ability to determine particle flux and density in the generated beams.

Abstract

We report a cryogenic buffer-gas-cell-aerodynamic-lens-stack setup that enables the generation of shock-frozen, dense, and controllable beams of various nanoparticles in the gas phase, including small and low-density species such as isolated proteins. We demonstrate characterization of the setup using strong-field ionization combined with velocity-map imaging, allowing the unambiguous detection of nanoparticles in the protein-size range and full reconstruction of the particle beams including determination of particle flux and number density. The generation and characterization workflow presented here provides a valuable approach for protein-like sample preparation and delivery in single-particle diffractive imaging, microscopy, and low-temperature nanoscience.