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Biological microcrystals and pulsed synchrotron radiation
- Fig. C.3.2: Explosion of a lysozyme molecule following exposure to a 5-fs x-ray pulse within photon flux sufficient for single-shot diffraction imaging (by courtesey of J. Hajdu). Once realised, TT-XFEL will deliver x-ray pulses with the required characteristics.
When the PFS-driven TT-XFEL becomes available, X-ray structure determination using single protein molecules may become possible. On the way to this final goal many steps are necessary. The technique of single-shot experiments on arbitrarily oriented molecules will be developed by using — in a first approach — small crystals and the Laue technique together with s
ynchrotron radiation in order to overcome the intensity problem. Starting with very small protein crystals, their size will be decreased into the microcrystal regime. For the use of microcrystals a highly sophisticated device has to be developed in order to bring one microcrystal after the other into the X-ray beam. The molecules have to bear a fluorescence label. The crystal positions will be controlled by a CCD camera. Besides the technical problems also a number of theoretical problems have to be solved, e. g. methods to link single-shot pictures must be developed in close cooperation with project 
C.3.2.