X-ray linear dichroic ptychography

Yuan Hung Lo; Jihan Zhou; Arjun Rana; Drew Morrill; Christian Gentry; Bjoern Enders; Young-Sang Yu; Chang-Yu Sun; David A Shapiro; Roger W Falcone; Henry C Kapteyn; Margaret M Murnane; Pupa U P A Gilbert; Jianwei Miao

doi:10.1073/pnas.2019068118

X-ray linear dichroic ptychography

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2021 Jan 19;118(3):e2019068118. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2019068118.

Authors

Yuan Hung Lo^{1

2

3

4}, Jihan Zhou^{1

2

3}, Arjun Rana^{1

2

3}, Drew Morrill^{2

5

6}, Christian Gentry^{2

5

6}, Bjoern Enders⁷, Young-Sang Yu⁸, Chang-Yu Sun⁹, David A Shapiro⁸, Roger W Falcone^{2

8

10}, Henry C Kapteyn^{2

5

6}, Margaret M Murnane^{2

5

6}, Pupa U P A Gilbert^{9

11

12

13

14}, Jianwei Miao^{15

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095.
² STROBE NSF Science and Technology Center, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309.
³ California NanoSystems Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095.
⁴ Department of Bioengineering, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095.
⁵ JILA, University of Colorado Boulder and National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder, CO 80309.
⁶ Department of Physics, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309.
⁷ National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720.
⁸ Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720.
⁹ Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706.
¹⁰ Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, CA, 94720.
¹¹ Department of Chemistry, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706.
¹² Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706.
¹³ Department of Geoscience, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706.
¹⁴ Chemical Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720.
¹⁵ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095; miao@physics.ucla.edu.

Abstract

Biominerals such as seashells, coral skeletons, bone, and tooth enamel are optically anisotropic crystalline materials with unique nanoscale and microscale organization that translates into exceptional macroscopic mechanical properties, providing inspiration for engineering new and superior biomimetic structures. Using Seriatopora aculeata coral skeleton as a model, here, we experimentally demonstrate X-ray linear dichroic ptychography and map the c-axis orientations of the aragonite (CaCO₃) crystals. Linear dichroic phase imaging at the oxygen K-edge energy shows strong polarization-dependent contrast and reveals the presence of both narrow (<35°) and wide (>35°) c-axis angular spread in the coral samples. These X-ray ptychography results are corroborated by four-dimensional (4D) scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) on the same samples. Evidence of co-oriented, but disconnected, corallite subdomains indicates jagged crystal boundaries consistent with formation by amorphous nanoparticle attachment. We expect that the combination of X-ray linear dichroic ptychography and 4D STEM could be an important multimodal tool to study nano-crystallites, interfaces, nucleation, and mineral growth of optically anisotropic materials at multiple length scales.

Keywords: 4D scanning transmission electron microscopy; X-ray linear dichroism; biominerals; coherent diffractive imaging; ptychography.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Intramural
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

Animals
Anisotropy
Anthozoa / chemistry*
Anthozoa / ultrastructure
Biomimetics*
Biomineralization*
Calcium Carbonate / chemistry
Crystallins / chemistry*
Crystallins / ultrastructure
Microscopy, Electron, Scanning Transmission
Minerals / chemistry
Radiography
Tissue Engineering
X-Rays

Substances

Crystallins
Minerals
Calcium Carbonate

Grants and funding

Z01 SC010378/ImNIH/Intramural NIH HHS/United States