Petr has provided the Eindhoven links.

For more details on fast electron imaging (as opposed to diffraction) see https://e-reports-ext.llnl.gov/pdf/343044.pdf

Apparently stochastic scattering of the electrons at the high current densities necessary for short pulsed sources result in blurring  in the image. The paper says that 10nm spatial and 10ps temporal resolution could be achieved with 5MeV electrons and annular dark field imaging. 

Of course more recent developments at Eindhoven and elsewhere might get round some of the limitations.


Colin

> -----Original Message-----
> From: CCP4 bulletin board [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
> Petr Leiman
> Sent: 14 April 2011 16:23
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [ccp4bb] Femtosecond Electron Beam
> 
> People are looking into how to fit the old retired MeV microscopes with
> pulsed electron guns (problem is there are very few of those beasts
> left). If this works, such a machine will produce equivalent results to
> FEL but at a fraction of the cost.
> 
> The group at Eindhoven, which Colin had mentioned, has already made a
> significant progress in achieving both time and spatial coherence. They
> are able to manipulate electrons in ultrashort electron bunches akin to
> spins in an NMR machine:
> http://prl.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v105/i26/e264801
> http://jap.aip.org/resource/1/japiau/v109/i3/p033302_s1
> And this is due to the fact that electrons can be focused with lenses.
> Amazing stuff. We will hear more about this for sure.
> 
> Sincerely,
> 
> Petr
> 
> ________________________________________
> From: CCP4 bulletin board [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Colin
> Nave [[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Thursday, April 14, 2011 16:50
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [ccp4bb] Femtosecond Electron Beam
> 
> Jacob
> Very good question.
> 
> People are considering this sort of thing. See for example
> http://www-spires.slac.stanford.edu/cgi-wrap/getdoc/slac-pub-12162.pdf
> 
> Due to coulomb explosion one normally needs MeV beams to get the short
> bunch length. MeV beams also give a more reasonable penetration depth
> (not relevant for single molecules). I think the problem is that the
> divergence is too high to resolve diffraction spots from protein
> crystals (or in other words insufficient coherence). Probably fine for
> many small molecule crystals though. You mentioned single molecules,
> presumably protein molecules and I think the same would apply if trying
> to observe the scattering.
> 
> One could try imaging (i.e. with an electron lens) rather than do
> diffraction. I presume this is what you mean by "focussed to solve the
> phase problem". However, I understand that there are problems with this
> as well for MeV beams but I can't remember the exact details. Can look
> it up if you are interested.
> 
> There could of course be technical advances which would make some of
> these ideas possible. I think a group at Eindhoven have plans to get
> round some of the problems. Again I would have to look up the details.
> 
> Regards
>  Colin
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: CCP4 bulletin board [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
> > Jacob Keller
> > Sent: 14 April 2011 14:39
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> > Subject: [ccp4bb] Femtosecond Electron Beam
> >
> > Dear Crystallographers,
> >
> > is there any reason why we are not considering using super-intense
> > femtosecond electron bursts, instead of photons? Since the scattering
> > of electrons is much more efficient, and because they can be focussed
> > to solve the phase problem, it seems that it might be worthwhile to
> > explore that route of single-molecule structure solution by using
> > electrospray techniques similar to the recently-reported results
> using
> > the FEL. Is there some technical limitation which would hinder this
> > possibility?
> >
> > JPK
> >
> > --
> > *******************************************
> > Jacob Pearson Keller
> > Northwestern University
> > Medical Scientist Training Program
> > cel: 773.608.9185
> > email: [log in to unmask]
> > *******************************************