Tilting and rotational motions of silver halide crystal with diffracted X-ray blinking

Masahiro Kuramochi,Yuji C Sasaki,Hiroshi Sekiguchi,Masaki Ishihara,Hiroki Omata,Motohiro Suzuki,Sander Ø Hanslin,Naomi Kawamura,Kazuhiro Mio,Hitoshi Osawa,Masaichiro Mizumaki

doi:10.1038/s41598-021-83320-y

Abstract

The dynamic properties of crystalline materials are important for understanding their local environment or individual single-grain motions. A new time-resolved observation method is required for use in many fields of investigation. Here, we developed in situ diffracted X-ray blinking to monitor high-resolution diffraction patterns from single-crystal grains with a 50 ms time resolution. The diffraction spots of single grains of silver halides and silver moved in the θ and χ directions during the photolysis chemical reaction. The movements of the spots represent tilting and rotational motions. The time trajectory of the diffraction intensity reflecting those motions was analysed by using single-pixel autocorrelation function (sp-ACF). Single-pixel ACF analysis revealed significant differences in the distributions of the ACF decay constants between silver halides, suggesting that the motions of single grains are different between them. The rotational diffusion coefficients for silver halides were estimated to be accurate at the level of approximately 0.1 to 0.3 pm2/s. Furthermore, newly formed silver grains on silver halides correlated with their ACF decay constants. Our high-resolution atomic scale measurement—sp-ACF analysis of diffraction patterns of individual grains—is useful for evaluating physical properties that are broadly applicable in physics, chemistry, and materials science.

Highlights

The dynamic properties of crystalline materials are important for understanding their local environment or individual single-grain motions
The relaxation time is defined as the autocorrelation function (ACF) decay constant, which is closely related to the fluctuation of the diffraction intensity with respect to grain motions
Diffracted X-ray Tracking” (DXT) and Diffracted X-ray Blinking” (DXB) provide benefits for observing the tilting and rotational motions of biomolecules at the atomic scale by using X-rays and nanocrystal probes, but they require the attachment of the nanocrystal probe to the biomolecule of interest

Summary

Introduction

The dynamic properties of crystalline materials are important for understanding their local environment or individual single-grain motions. The relaxation time is defined as the ACF decay constant, which is closely related to the fluctuation of the diffraction intensity with respect to grain motions. We apply DXB to directly measure the tilting and rotational motions of single-crystal grains in silver halides during photoreactions.

Results

Conclusion