Optimizing probes for multi-beam ptychography

TL;DR

This paper introduces a quantitative framework for designing optimized probes in multi-beam ptychography, demonstrating that Hadamard-based binary phase masks improve robustness and scalability in high-throughput imaging.

Contribution

It provides a systematic method to evaluate and select structured probes, showing Hadamard masks outperform alternatives for robust multi-beam ptychography.

Findings

Hadamard masks outperform Zernike and spiral masks

Binary phase masks improve robustness and scalability

Spiral masks have comparable resolution but less efficiency

Abstract

Multi-beam ptychography (MBP) offers a scalable solution to improve the throughput of state-of-the-art ptychography by increasing the number of coherent beams that illuminate the sample simultaneously. However, increasing the number of beams in ptychography makes ptychographical reconstructions more challenging and less robust. It has been demonstrated that MBP reconstructions can be made more robust by using well-structured and mutually separable probes. Here, we present a quantitative framework to assess probe sets based on separability, uniformity, and fabrication feasibility. We show that Hadamard-based binary phase masks consistently outperform Zernike polynomials, experimentally feasible phase plates, and spiral phase masks across varying scan densities. While spiral masks yield comparable resolution, they scale less efficiently due to increased structural complexity. Our results establish practical criteria for evaluating and designing structured probes to enable more robust and scalable implementation of MBP in high-throughput coherent X-ray and EUV imaging.