Abstract:

Although the discovery of x-rays, and most clinical applications since have involved x-ray imaging, the scientific applications of x-rays in the last 100 years have instead been dominated by diffraction and spectroscopy. Thanks to 3rd generation sources (such as the Advanced Photon Source) and better x-ray detectors, x-ray imaging is entering a new era, with tremendous growth of applications in areas from biology to condensed matter physics. Much of this has been made possible by the increasing coherence of x-ray sources. Such sources are complementary to other imaging techniques such as electron microscopy. New techniques like lensless imaging and x-ray photon correlation spectroscopy are burgeoning. I will show many scientific examples from imaging including biological organisms, dynamics in polymers and nanoscale magnetism. The future is made brighter by possibilities of dramatically improved coherence and ultra-fast pulses with 4th generation x-ray sources, and I will discuss the prospects of upgrading the Advanced Photon Source in the next decade.