Phase-diverse Fresnel coherent diffractive imaging of malaria parasite-infected red blood cells in the water window

Abstract

Phase-diverse Fresnel coherent diffractive imaging has been shown to reveal the structure and composition of biological specimens with high sensitivity at nanoscale resolution. However, the method has yet to be applied using X-ray illumination with energy in the so-called 'water-window' that lies between the carbon and oxygen K edges. In this range, differences in the strength of the X-ray interaction for protein based biological materials and water is increased. Here we demonstrate a proof-of-principle application of FCDI at an X-ray energy within the water-window to a dehydrated cellular sample composed of red blood cells infected with the trophozoite stage of the malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum. Comparison of the results to both optical and electron microscopy shows that the correlative imaging methods that include water-window FCDI will find utility in studying cellular architecture.