Partial coherence: A route to performing faster coherent diffraction imaging

Abstract

Coherent diffraction imaging (CDI) typically requires that the light source should be highly coherent both laterally and longitudinally. Beamlines at synchrotrons usually install a monochromator and slits to achieve a highly coherent source, leading to a large reduction of beam flux. We demonstrate that lateral and longitudinal partial coherence can be successfully included in a CDI reconstruction algorithm simultaneously, reducing the associated exposure time by two orders of magnitude. For the experimental case we present this allows the acquisition of CDI data in just 5 seconds compared to 20 minutes for full coherence. This significantly reduces the requirements on the stability of the i..