When digital holography meets crystallography: unlocking new frontiers in mineral crystallization

Abstract

Digital holography and crystallography, regarded as separate fields, are converging to tackle a challenge in materials science: capturing the dynamics of crystal growth and transformation in real-time without disturbing the system. Here researchers spotlight free field-of-view infrared digital holography as a powerful, broadly applicable imaging strategy that bridges the gap in capabilities left by conventional X-ray, electron, and optical intensity-based methods. By simultaneously recording amplitude and phase with millisecond temporal resolution and deep penetration, infrared digital holography reveals hidden mesoscale processes, including asynchronous morphological phase evolution and stress defect coupling, across a wide range of crystalline systems, from minerals and salts to perovskite films and two-dimensional semiconductors. This capability not only complements atomic-scale probes like X-ray ptychography and four-dimensional scanning transmission electron microscopy, but also enables continuous, quantitative, phase-resolved imaging under ambient conditions. Infrared digital holography extends beyond academic inquiry, enabling precise crystal engineering, rapid discovery of functional materials, and integration with AI-driven analytics, thereby opening new avenues in crystallography with transformative implications for science and industry.