Object Initialization For Ptychographic Scans With Reduced Overlap

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that using object-based initialization in ptychography allows for reduced overlap in scans, maintaining quality while decreasing dose and scan time, which benefits dose-sensitive and rapid imaging applications.

Contribution

The study introduces a novel object initialization method that reduces overlap requirements in ptychography, improving efficiency without significantly compromising reconstruction quality.

Findings

Object initialization reduces overlap from 50-60% to lower levels.

Reconstruction quality is modestly affected by reduced overlap.

Method benefits dose-sensitive and rapid scan scenarios.

Abstract

X-ray ptychography utilizes overlapping illuminations to reconstruct the object's phase and absorption signal with spatial resolutions much smaller than the focus size. Usually, the illumination overlap is chosen to be between 50% and 60% in order to ensure high quality reconstructions at reasonable scan times and/or doses. Here, we experimentally demonstrate that ptychographic iteration with object instead of flat initialization allows for a significant reduction of the overlap with only a modest loss in reconstruction quality. This approach could prove beneficial for dose sensitive experiments and for rapid feedback overview scans.