Measurement of coherent x-ray focused beams by phase retrieval with transverse translation diversity

We describe a method for characterizing focused x-ray beams using phase retrieval, with diversity achieved by transversely translating a phase-shifting or absorbing structure close to the beam focus. The required measurements can be taken with an experimental setup that is similar to that already used for fluorescent scan testing. The far-field intensity pattern is measured for each position of the translating structure, and the collected measurements are jointly used to estimate the beam profile by using a nonlinear optimization gradient search algorithm. The capability to reconstruct 1D and 2D beam foci is demonstrated through numerical simulations. (C) 2009 Optical Society of America