Argonne National Laboratory

Research Highlight | Materials Science

High-energy coherent diffraction enabled by emulating finer pixels
In a study published in Journal of Physical Review Letters, researchers used simulated Bragg coherent diffraction imaging data sets to demonstrate the approach, outline sparse recovery strategy and comment on future opportunities.
The target of the recovery algorithm is a sufficiently well-resolved approximation to the continuous scattered field. With each sub-pixel translation of the detector, new constraints on the pixel values are obtained.

Scientific Achievement

A sparsity-based numerical approach was developed that recovers intensity patterns suitable for coherent diffraction imaging of nanocrystals from high X-ray energy under-sampled coherent diffractions.

Significance and Impact

This work overcomes a significant challenge in enabling 3D coherent X-ray diffraction imaging at highly penetrating X-ray energies which will be one of the revolutionary capabilities of the Upgraded Advanced Photon Source.

Research Details

  • Current coherent diffraction reconstruction algorithms fail when intensity patterns are under-sampled, as occurs at high X-ray energies (> 50 keV) due to reciprocal space scaling.
  • The numerical method of emulating finer pixel utilizes multiple measurements of a Bragg peak offset by fractions of a physical pixel size, relieving experimental constraints.

DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-23040-y

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