Influence of polychromaticity on particle structure determination in small-angle X-ray scattering

Pink beams are now widely used for small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) data collection owing to their high intensity. However, the wavelength spread of a pink beam is a factor of 100 higher than that of a monochromatic beam, thus causing the experimental data to be smeared. To reveal the influence of polychromaticity on shape reconstruction, four geometric bodies (sphere, cube, helix and long cylinder) were used for SAXS data analysis. The results reveal that the influence of polychromaticity on the process of shape reconstruction is significantly more dependent on the geometry of the body than on its size. Scattering objects with smoothed scattering curves can tolerate a higher wavelength spread than those with tortuous curves. It is further demonstrated that the structural parameters calculated from the smeared data sets have little deviation from the ideal ones, which indicates the possibility of using a light source with a greater wavelength spread than a conventional pink beam for special time-resolved SAXS experiments. Finally, it is concluded that SAXS data collected in pink-beam mode can be used directly for structural calculations and model reconstructions without a desmearing procedure.