In polymeric materials and biomaterials used in industry and the medical field, groups of atoms and molecules of various sizes move at their own time scales. Understanding these structures and motions is especially important because they are the microscopic origin of the mechanical properties and biological functions of industrial materials such as softness and brittleness. Measuring motion on the order of nanoseconds is important for many materials. However, such measurement has not been realized with sufficient precision using X-rays.
A research group led by Associate Professor Makina Saito of the Graduate School of Science at Tohoku University developed an "X-ray spectroscopic dynamics measurement technology" that uses synchrotron radiation X-rays to observe in the time range of 0.1-100 ns, with sensitivity orders of magnitude higher than conventional X-ray methods. This technology employs a "nuclear monochromator" that precisely extracts light of a specific wavelength and a "spectroscope" that measures the intensity of light for each wavelength. Therefore, to achieve a high sensitivity in this technology, new conditions were added so that the nuclear monochromator and the spectroscope can simultaneously extract multiple wavelengths and perform measurements, thereby creating a "spectral structure of light" that sensitively reflects the time scale of atomic and molecular motions. "CITIUS," a next-generation high-performance 2D high-speed X-ray camera, enables the precise simultaneous measurement of atomic and molecular structures.
This method exhibits few limitations with respect to what can be measured and allows nondestructive measurements inside materials. The high measurement efficiency of this technology enables its application to various industrial materials such as batteries, liquid crystals, and tires as well as biological model systems. This technology is expected to lead to the development of industrial materials and understanding of biological phenomena based on atomic- and molecular-level knowledge.
