High-resolution and high-sensitivity phase-contrast imaging by focused hard x-ray ptychography with a spatial filter
We demonstrate high-resolution and high-sensitivity x-ray phase-contrast imaging of a weakly scattering extended object by scanning coherent diffractive imaging, i.e., ptychography, using a focused x-ray beam with a spatial filter. We develop the x-ray illumination optics installed with the spatial filter to collect coherent diffraction patterns with a high signal-to-noise ratio. We quantitatively visualize the object with a slight phase shift ({approx}{lambda}/320) at spatial resolution better than 17 nm in a field of view larger than {approx}2 Multiplication-Sign 2{mu}m{sup 2}. The present coherent method has a marked potential for high-resolution and wide-field-of-view observation of weakly scattering objects such as biological soft tissues.