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Biominerals such as seashells, corals skeletons, bone, and enamel are optically anisotropic crystalline materials with unique nano- and micro-scale organization that translates into exceptional macroscopic mechanical properties, providing inspiration for engineering new and superior biomimetic structures. Here we use particles of Seriatopora aculeata coral skeleton as a model and demonstrate, for the first time, x-ray linear dichroic ptychography. We map the aragonite (CaCO3) crystal c-axis orientations in coral skeleton with 35 nm spatial resolution. Linear dichroic phase imaging at the O K-edge energy shows strong polarization-dependent contrast and reveals the presence of both narrow (< 35{deg}) and wide (> 35{deg}) c-axis angular spread in sub-micrometer coral particles. These x-ray ptychography results were corroborated using 4D scanning transmission electron nano-diffraction on the same particles. Evidence of co-oriented but disconnected corallite sub-domains indicates jagged crystal boundaries consistent with formation by amorphous nanoparticle attachment. Looking forward, we anticipate that x-ray linear dichroic ptychography can be applied to study nano-crystallites, interfaces, nucleation and mineral growth of optically anisotropic materials with sub-ten nanometers spatial resolution in three dimensions.
Linear-dichroism is an important tool to characterize the transmission matrix and determine the crystal or orbital orientation in a material. In order to gain high resolution mapping of the transmission properties of such materials, we introduce the
Imaging the magnetic structure of a material is essential to understanding the influence of the physical and chemical microstructure on its magnetic properties. Magnetic imaging techniques, however, have up to now been unable to probe 3D micrometer-s
With their brilliance and temporal structure, X-ray free-electron laser can unveil atomic-scale details of ultrafast phenomena. Recent progress in split-and-delay optics (SDO), which produces two X-ray pulses with time-delays, offers bright prospects
X-ray Raman spectra of liquid, sub- and super- critical water at the oxygen K-edge were measured, at densities 1.02 - 0.16 gcm^-3. Measurements were made along both an isotherm and an isochore passing near the critical point. As density is reduced th
The success of ptychographic imaging experiments strongly depends on achieving high signal-to-noise ratio. This is particularly important in nanoscale imaging experiments when diffraction signals are very weak and the experiments are accompanied by s