No abstract

This Letter demonstrates that coherent diffractive imaging (CDI), in combination with phase-diversity methods, provides reliable and artefact free high-resolution images. Here, using x rays, experimental results show a threefold improvement in the available image contrast. Furthermore, in conditions requiring low imaging dose, it is demonstrated that phase-diverse CDI provides a factor of 2 improvement in comparison to previous CDI techniques.

Coherent diffraction imaging (CDI) typically requires that the source should be highly coherent both laterally and longitudinally. In this paper, we demonstrate that lateral and longitudinal partial coherence can be successfully included in a CDI reconstruction algorithm simultaneously using experimental X-ray data. We study the interplay between lateral partial coherence and longitudinal partial coherence and their relative influence on CDI. We compare our results against the coherence criteria published by Spence et al (Ultramicroscopy, 101, 149 (2004)) and show that, for iterative ab initio phase-recovery algorithms based on those typically used in CDI and in cases where the coherence properties are known we are able to relax the minimal coherence requirements by a factor of 2 both laterally and longitudinally, potentially yielding significant reduction in exposure time.