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 (similar to lambda/320) at spatial resolution better than 17 nm in a field of view larger than similar to 2 x 2 mu m(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. (C) 2013 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4794063]