Schedule Aug 06, 2010
True Real Space Imaging with Multi-beam Inelastic X-ray Scattering
Yu Gan (UIUC)

Inelastic X-ray scattering (IXS) has recently been used to image electron dynamics at the attosecond timescale, but it has been shown that these images are spatially averaged. The problem is that the existing technique can only access the "diagonal" elements of the electron density response. It was shown long ago, however, that inelastic X-ray scattering in the presence of coherent standing fields is sensitive to the off-diagonal elements of the response. With this method, a standing wave field is established in the sample by exciting a Bragg condition, allowing access to all the off-diagonal elements of the response. In this poster I will present a simple model demonstrating that, in principle, this approach can be used to overcome the averaging problem and achieve "true" imaging. In particular, I will show that a one-dimensional system is experimentally impractical to probe, a two-dimensional system is experimentally tenable but typically difficult to measure in practice, and a three-dimensional system is experimentally both plausible and practicable.

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