Quantitative phase nano-imaging with a laboratory source

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that quantitative X-ray ptychography can be effectively performed using laboratory sources, enabling nanoscale imaging without large synchrotron facilities, and applies it to brain tissue phantom imaging.

Contribution

It shows that quantitative nano-imaging via X-ray ptychography is feasible in a laboratory setting, expanding accessibility beyond synchrotron facilities.

Findings

Quantitative ptychography is preserved in laboratory conditions.

Successful imaging of brain tissue phantom at nanoscale.

Identifies current challenges and future directions for laboratory nano-imaging.

Abstract

Investigating the structure of matter at the nanoscale non destructively is a key capability enabled by X-ray imaging. One of the most powerful nano-imaging methods is X-ray ptychography, a coherent diffraction imaging technique that has become the go-to method at synchrotron facilities for applications ranging from brain imaging to battery materials. However, the requirements in terms of X-ray beam quality have limited its use to large synchrotron facilities and, to date, only one attempt has been made to translate the technique to a small-scale laboratory. To unleash the power of this technique to the broad user community of laboratory X-ray sources, there are outstanding questions to answer including whether the quantitativeness of the information is preserved in a laboratory despite the drastic decrease in X-ray flux of several orders of magnitude, with respect to synchrotron instruments. In this study not only we demonstrate that the quantitativeness of X-ray ptychography is preserved in a laboratory setting, but we also apply the method to the imaging of a brain tissue phantom. Finally, we describe the current challenges and limitations, and we set the basis for further development and future directions of quantitative nano-imaging with laboratory X-ray sources.