X-ray Fourier ptychographic microscopy

Abstract

Following the recent developement of Fourier ptychographic microscopy (FPM) in the visible range by Zheng et al. (2013), we propose an adaptation for hard x-rays. FPM employs ptychographic reconstruction to merge a series of low-resolution, wide field of view images into a high-resolution image. In the x-ray range this opens the possibility to overcome the limited numerical aperture of existing x-ray lenses. Furthermore, digital wave front correction (DWC) may be used to charaterize and correct lens imperfections. Given the diffraction limit achievable with x-ray lenses (below 100 nm), x-ray Fourier ptychographic microscopy (XFPM) should be able to reach resolutions in the 10 nm range.