17 Wegert, Leonard Maximilian Rauch, Constantin Schreiner, Stephan Schneider, Markus Michel, Thilo Anton, Gisela Albertazzi, Bruno Koenig, Michel Meyer, Pascal Fröjdh, Erik Mozzanica, Aldo Yang, Yang Hornung, Johannes Zielbauer, Bernhard Martynenko, Artem S. LePape, Sébastien Funk, Stefan Neumayer, Paul PPH Scientific reports Scientific reports Springer Nature [London] 2045-2322 10.1038/s41598-025-30010-8 English 42564 1 15 Microstructured foams are emerging as a promising class of targets, with applications ranging from laser-driven particle acceleration to inertial confinement fusion. To unlock their full potential, a deeper understanding of their properties, especially the changes and behavior of the microstructure under extreme conditions, is required. While recently advancing 3D printed foam targets can be observed by X-ray radiography, the microstructure in chemically produced targets is far below the spatial resolution of conventional radiography. To overcome this limitation, we apply grating-based X-ray dark-field imaging to observe structural changes in foams that are rapidly heated by laser-accelerated proton pulses. The experimental data is compared to synthetic dark-field values obtained from hydrodynamic simulations of a simplified foam model. Both experimental and simulation results demonstrate the viability of utilizing grating-based dark-field imaging for observing microstructural changes in foam targets. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ; PUB:(DE-HGF)16, ; 0, ; WOS:001629328000006 Journal Article 2025 GSI-2026-00344 2025 pmid:41298900 https://repository.gsi.de/record/364991 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-30010-8 <Go to ISI>://WOS:001629328000006