Coherent x-ray wavefront reconstruction of a partially illuminated Fresnel zone plate

A detailed characterization of the coherent x-ray wavefront produced by a partially illuminated Fresnel zone plate is presented. We show, by numerical and experimental approaches, how the beam size and the focal depth are strongly influenced by the illumination conditions, while the phase of the focal spot remains constant. These results confirm that the partial illumination can be used for coherent diffraction experiments. Finally, we demonstrate the possibility of reconstructing the complex-valued illumination function by simple measurement of the far field intensity in the specific case of partial illumination. (C) 2011 Optical Society of America