No Arabic abstract
The ever-increasing brightness of synchrotron radiation sources demands improved x-ray optics to utilise their capability for imaging and probing biological cells, nano-devices, and functional matter on the nanometre scale with chemical sensitivity. Hard x-rays are ideal for high-resolution imaging and spectroscopic applications due to their short wavelength, high penetrating power, and chemical sensitivity. The penetrating power that makes x-rays useful for imaging also makes focusing them technologically challenging. Recent developments in layer deposition techniques that have enabled the fabrication of a series of highly focusing x-ray lenses, known as wedged multi layer Laue lenses. Improvements to the lens design and fabrication technique demands an accurate, robust, in-situ and at-wavelength characterisation method. To this end, we have developed a modified form of the speckle-tracking wavefront metrology method, the ptychographic x-ray speckle tracking method, which is capable of operating with highly divergent wavefields. A useful by-product of this method, is that it also provides high-resolution and aberration-free projection images of extended specimens. We report on three separate experiments using this method, where we have resolved ray path angles to within 4 nano-radians with an imaging resolution of 45nm (full-period). This method does not require a high degree of coherence, making it suitable for lab based x-ray sources. Likewise it is robust to errors in the registered sample positions making it suitable for x-ray free-electron laser facilities, where beam pointing fluctuations can be problematic for wavefront metrology.
We present a method for the measurement of the phase gradient of a wavefront by tracking the relative motion of speckles in projection holograms as a sample is scanned across the wavefront. By removing the need to obtain an un-distorted reference image of the sample, this method is suitable for the metrology of highly divergent wavefields. Such wavefields allow for large magnification factors, that, according to current imaging capabilities, will allow for nano-radian angular sensitivity and nano-scale sample projection imaging. Both the reconstruction algorithm and the imaging geometry are nearly identical to that of ptychography, except that the sample is placed downstream of the beam focus and that no coherent propagation is explicitly accounted for. Like other x-ray speckle tracking methods, it is robust to low-coherence x-ray sources making is suitable for lab based x-ray sources. Likewise it is robust to errors in the registered sample positions making it suitable for x-ray free-electron laser facilities, where beam pointing fluctuations can be problematic for wavefront metrology. We also present a modified form of the speckle tracking approximation, based on a second-order local expansion of the Fresnel integral. This result extends the validity of the speckle tracking approximation and may be useful for similar approaches in the field.
In recent years, x-ray speckle tracking techniques have emerged as viable tools for wavefront metrology and sample imaging applications. These methods are based on the measurement of near-field images. Thanks to the simple experimental set-up, high angular sensitivity and compatibility with low coherence sources these methods have been actively developed for use with synchrotron and laboratory light sources. Not only do speckle-tracking techniques give the potential for high resolution imaging, but they also provide rapid and robust characterisation of aberrations of x-ray optical elements, focal spot profiles and the sample position and transmission properties. In order to realise these capabilities, we require software implementations that are equally rapid and robust. To address this need, a software suite has been developed for the ptychographic x-ray speckle tracking technique -- an x-ray speckle based method suitable for highly divergent wavefields. The software suite is written in Python 3, with an OpenCL back end for GPU and multi-CPU core processing. It is accessible as a Python module, through the command line or through a graphical user interface and is available as source code under version 3 or later of the GNU General Public License.
A well-characterised wavefront is important for many X-ray free-electron laser (XFEL) experiments, especially for single-particle imaging (SPI), where individual bio-molecules randomly sample a nanometer-region of highly-focused femtosecond pulses. We demonstrate high-resolution multiple-plane wavefront imaging of an ensemble of XFEL pulses, focused by Kirkpatrick-Baez (KB) mirrors, based on mixed-state ptychography, an approach letting us infer and reduce experimental sources of instability. From the recovered wavefront profiles, we show that while local photon fluence correction is crucial and possible for SPI, a small diversity of phase-tilts likely has no impact. Our detailed characterisation will aid interpretation of data from past and future SPI experiments, and provides a basis for further improvements to experimental design and reconstruction algorithms.
The measurement of the silicon lattice parameter by a separate-crystal triple-Laue x-ray interferometer is a key step for the kilogram realisation by counting atoms. Since the measurement accuracy is approaching nine significant digits, a reliable model of the interferometer operation is demanded to quantify or exclude systematic errors. This paper investigates both analytically and experimentally the effect of defocus (a difference between the splitter-to-mirror distance on the one hand and the analyser-to-mirror one on the other) on the phase of the interference fringes and the measurement of the lattice parameter.
Following the recent developement of Fourier ptychographic microscopy (FPM) in the visible range by Zheng et al. (2013), we propose an adaptation for hard x-rays. FPM employs ptychographic reconstruction to merge a series of low-resolution, wide field of view images into a high-resolution image. In the x-ray range this opens the possibility to overcome the limited numerical aperture of existing x-ray lenses. Furthermore, digital wave front correction (DWC) may be used to charaterize and correct lens imperfections. Given the diffraction limit achievable with x-ray lenses (below 100 nm), x-ray Fourier ptychographic microscopy (XFPM) should be able to reach resolutions in the 10 nm range.