Ptychographic coherent diffractive imaging of weakly scattering specimens

Applying iterative phase retrieval schemes to ptychographic data, i.e. diffraction patterns collected with a localized illumination probe from overlapping regions of a specimen, has enabled the investigation of extended specimens previously inaccessible by other coherent x-ray diffractive imaging methods. While the technique had initially been limited by the requirement of precise knowledge of the illumination function, recent algorithmic developments allow now the simultaneous reconstruction of both the probe and the object. However, these new approaches suffer from an inherent ambiguity, which affects especially the case of weakly scattering specimens. We present new schemes to circumvent this problem and introduce new tools for obtaining information about the scattering behaviour of weak phase objects already during data collection. The new techniques are experimentally demonstrated for a data set taken on Magnetospirillum gryphiswaldense. © IOP Publishing Ltd and Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft.