A method is proposed for obtaining three simultaneous projections of a target from a single radiation pulse, which also allows the relative orientation of successive targets to be determined. The method has application to femtosecond x-ray diffraction, and does not require solution of the phase problem. We show that the principal axes of a compact charge-density distribution can be obtained from projections of its autocorrelation function, which is directly accessible in diffraction experiments. The results may have more general application to time resolved tomographic pump-probe experiments and time-series imaging.

• Received 9 June 2008

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.101.115507