gas-phase molecules, e.g. via quantum-state-selection methods [@Kupper2014; @Stern2014]. A great advantage of this approach is that multiple molecules can be illuminated simultaneously, increasing signal-to-noise and, as supported by the work here, reducing the impact of damage. These methods have been demonstrated only for small (2,5-diiodo-benzonitrile) molecules so far [@Kupper2014; @Stern2014] and extensions to larger molecules are being actively pursued. If the molecules are aligned experimentally, the self-gating effect still applies. Radiation damage modifies each molecule in the beam uniquely and stochastically, so that multiple damage scenarios are averaged in a single diffraction measurement in an analogous way to crystallography. This increases the signal with respect to damage noise as well as shot noise. The self-gating effect ensures that such benefits from using multiple aligned molecules are not lost entirely by using x-ray pulses longer than 10 fs.

Once the 3D data assembly has been performed, damage will still have a residual effect on the resulting 3D diffraction volume. Damage reduces the contrast in the averaged diffraction volume[@Quiney2011], and depending on the theoretical perspective, also contributes a background[@Lorenz2012]. Promisingly the reduction in contrast can be accounted for during structure determination by treating the sample in terms of a small number of 