Time-Resolved Femtosecond X-ray Crystallography at EuXFEL (IMAGE)
Caption
In this illustration, microcrystals are injected (top, left) and a reaction is initiated by blue laser pulses hitting the proteins within the crystals (middle, left). The atomic structure of the protein (right) is probed during the reaction by the X-ray pulses (bottom, left). At the European XFEL, femtosecond optical laser pulses match the X-ray pulses that fire at a megahertz rate. X-ray pulses are six orders of magnitude larger than that at other X-ray sources. This makes it possible to produce diffraction patterns for nearly any protein, yielding still images recorded over unimaginably rapid time increments that form molecular movies.
Credit
European XFEL / Blue Clay Studios
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with full credit
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