ESRFEBS SCIENCE THAT SERVES I 13

Designing next-generation materials that boost

energy efficiency and sustainability demands

insights beyond bulk properties, which until

now were invisible. ESRF-EBS’s advanced new

technique for materials research, dark-field

X-ray microscopy (DFXM), captures the hidden

nanoscale dynamics that govern material

performance in real time, providing the knowledge

needed to precisely tune properties for lighter,

stronger and more resilient structures

Pioneered at beamline ID03 and supported by four

ERC grants DFXM combines ESRFEBSs 100fold

increase in incoming Xray flux with a 30fold boost

in diffracted intensity while maintaining 100 nm

spatial resolution These capabilities uncover

operando structural processes and timescales

inaccessible by any other technique

UNLOCKING MATERIALS

AT THE NANOSCALE

Researchers can now observe time-resolved grain

growth, boundary migration, and intragranular

orientation evolution, and rapidly switch to

monochromatic mode for strain measurements.

Studies of metal recrystallisation using DFXM

have uncovered how grains evolve at elevated

temperatures, delivering unique insights to guide

the design of high-performance alloys, while

new advances enable seamless zooming from

millimetre-scale aggregates down to individual

dislocations, directly revealing the intergranular

interactions that play a key role in material

properties.

In the future, DFXM at ESRF-EBS will enable in

situ studies of materials under extreme conditions,

accelerate the discovery of novel alloys, and provide

the precise nanoscale understanding needed to

drive innovations in energy-efficient transport,

sustainable industrial processes, and the transition

to a low-carbon economy.

EBS SCIENCE

3D4D imaging of complex and deformed

microstructures with pinkbeam dark field

Xray microscopy C Yildirim et al Commun

Mater 6 198 2025

Bridging Grain Mapping and Dark Field

Xray Microscopy for Multiscale Diffraction

Imaging A Shukla et al arXiv 2025

In-situ observation of aluminium grain growth during

isothermal annealing using pink-beam dark-field X-ray

microscopy single-frame projection imaging at ESRF beamline

ID03. Image courtesy of ref. 1.

20 μm