Diffractive Imaging of Crystalline Materials at XFELs and Synchrotrons

Dear Colleagues,

Crystals, one of the most common forms of matter, are extremely fascinating and have been the focus of studies for centuries even before the birth of crystallography. Since the first X-ray diffraction experiments and the subsequent molecular structure determination from crystals in the early twentieth century, X-ray science and technologies have advanced dramatically over the past hundred years. The scientific community has witnessed and benefitted from the birth of large-scale brighter x-ray facilities like synchrotrons and more recently, the x-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs) in the last two decades. Meanwhile, along with crystallography, ultrafast diffractive imaging has emerged as a powerful technique providing unprecedented insights into the structure and dynamics of matter. With the rapid advancements in the design and capabilities of synchrotrons and XFELs, and with the advancements in the field of diffractive imaging, there is a significant interest among the community in condensing the recent knowledge on diffractive imaging of the structure and dynamics of crystalline materials at synchrotrons and XFELs. To realize this, we invite you—the scientific community, friends and colleagues, to contribute to this Special Issue focusing on “Diffractive Imaging of Crystalline Materials at XFELs and Synchrotrons”.

The scope of this Special Issue spans several aspects of coherent diffractive imaging (CDI) of crystals with a focus on nanoscale crystalline materials. The topics covered are serial/single-crystal diffractive imaging of macromolecular/inorganic materials (e.g.: serial macromolecular crystallography, fiber-diffraction, grain-mapping in case of inorganic nanocrystals), instrumentation and sample delivery for diffractive imaging, Bragg-CDI, ptychography, holography, x-ray microscopy, projection imaging, fluctuation imaging, and ultrafast pump-probe diffractive imaging of nanocrystals, data processing for high repetition rate XFELs including the development of software and algorithms including machine learning methods. Your contribution could either be a review article condensing the recent signs of progress in these areas or a perspective focusing on future developments of a specific technique or a class of crystalline materials or even a facility/instrument, or it could be a rapid communication/full-article with original theoretical or experimental research results!

Note: As this Special Issue focuses exclusively on crystalline materials and within the scope of the journal, articles on diffractive imaging of non-crystalline materials are not covered; however, the potential of extension of crystallographic methods to imaging non-crystalline materials can be discussed briefly in your submissions.

The submission deadline is July 31, 2023. Please get in touch with us, should you have any questions on this Special Issue!

Looking forward to receiving your contributions!

Dr. Chufeng Li
Dr. Andrew V. Martin
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Crystals is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2100 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.