Researchers can now see objects more completely and faster at the nanoscale level due to utilizing the full spectrum of synchrotron light, creating avenues for faster three-dimensional (3D) nanoimaging. This new methodology will provide for enhanced nanoimaging for examining biosamples for medical research, improved drug development, and advanced materials for engineering.

Using the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory (Argonne, IL, USA), researchers from the ARC Center of Excellence for Coherent X-ray Science (CXS), headquartered at the University of Melbourne, Australia, revealed that by utilizing the full spectrum of colors of the synchrotron, they increased the clarity of biologic samples and obtained a 60-fold increase in the speed of imaging.

Prof. Keith Nugent, a professor of physics at the University of Melbourne and research director of CXS, said the discovery was an exciting development. “Typically for best imaging, researchers need to convert samples to crystals, but this is not always possible in all samples,” he said. “This discovery of utilizing full color synchrotron light to improve precision and speed of imaging has huge potential in the field.”

The international project was led by Dr. Brian Abbey of the University of Melbourne’s School of Physics and CXS, whose team made the discovery. “We will now be able to see things in detail at the nanoscale much more easily. It is like going from an old film camera to the latest digital SLR. The increase in speed, in particular, opens the way for us to see things faster in 3D at the nanoscale, which has previously taken an impracticably long time,” Dr. Abbey said.

The study was published in the July 2011 issue of the journal Nature Photonics.

Related Links:
Advanced Photon Source
ARC Center of Excellence for Coherent X-ray Science