High-Resolution Hard X-ray Holography by Unconfined Atomic Layer Deposited Phase-Shifting 3D References

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel high-resolution X-ray holography technique using a phase-shifting reference fabricated by atomic layer deposition, enabling non-iterative, single-shot imaging with improved resolution and flexibility.

Contribution

The work presents a new phase-shifting reference for hard X-ray holography that overcomes previous substrate limitations and allows for unconfined, flexible, and high-resolution imaging.

Findings

Achieved single-pixel resolution in X-ray holography.

Enabled effective data correction and tomography.

Demonstrated non-iterative phase and amplitude reconstruction.

Abstract

We demonstrate high-resolution non-iterative holographic coherent diffraction imaging with hard X-rays using a novel phase-shifting reference, fabricated by atomic layer deposition to produce nanosharp 3D structure. The method surpasses the limitations associated with absorbing substrates predominantly employed in soft X-ray holography using extended, customized and point-source references. The unconfined experimental setup relaxes the technical constraints, allows effective data correction, and enables independent sample translation and rotation for data averaging and tomography. Applicable to single-shot measurements, phase and amplitude reconstructions of samples are retrieved with single-pixel resolution and differential contrast by simple non-iterative computation.