Instead, a single wavelength can be selected to produce the X-ray equivalent of a pure-colour beam of light.

The researchers then narrowed down the X-ray beam so that it was just a tenth of a millimetre across and found that the fractal-like regions occurred only where the beam struck the sample.

Then they brought the sample back to room temperature and exposed it to an X-ray beam from the facility while using a CCD detector to record the X-rays reflected from the surface of the sample.