First demonstration of interaction-free measurement protocol with x-rays

We propose a proof-of-concept experiment to demonstrate one of the most exotic and counter-intuitive quantum effects that enables the interrogation of samples with a significantly reduced dose compared to conventional probes. The effect that is known as interaction free measurements (IFM) relies on interference of single photons and on the fact that the energy quanta of a single photon cannot split. While the effect has been demonstrated by several groups with visible photons, ultra-cold atoms, and electrons it has never been demonstrated with x-rays. The demonstration of IFM with x-rays will open intriguing possibilities for measurements with reduced dose mainly for biological samples where radiation damage can be a significant limitation. On the fundamental side, the use of the high efficiency photon number resolving x-ray detectors can be used for the test of the effect at the theoretical limit, which is hard to do with optical photons.