Inverse scattering for reflection intensity phase microscopy

Reflection phase imaging provides label-free, high-resolution characterization of biological samples, typically using interferometric-based techniques. Here, we investigate reflection phase microscopy from intensity-only measurements under diverse illumination. We evaluate the forward and inverse scattering model based on the first Born approximation for imaging scattering objects above a glass slide. Under this design, the measured field combines linear forward-scattering and height-dependent nonlinear back-scattering from the object that complicates object phase recovery. Using only the forward-scattering, we derive a linear inverse scattering model and evaluate this model's validity range in simulation and experiment using a standard reflection microscope modified with a programmable light source. Our method provides enhanced contrast of thin, weakly scattering samples that complement transmission techniques. This model provides a promising development for creating simplified intensity-based reflection quantitative phase imaging systems easily adoptable for biological research.https://arxiv.org/abs/1912.07709Accepted manuscrip

X-ray diffraction from bone employing annular and semi-annular beams

This is the final version of the article. Available from the publisher via the DOI in this record.There is a compelling need for accurate, low cost diagnostics to identify osteo-tissues that are associated with a high risk of fracture within an individual. To satisfy this requirement the quantification of bone characteristics such as 'bone quality' need to exceed that provided currently by densitometry. Bone mineral chemistry and microstructure can be determined from coherent x-ray scatter signatures of bone specimens. Therefore, if these signatures can be measured, in vivo, to an appropriate accuracy it should be possible by extending terms within a fracture risk model to improve fracture risk prediction.In this preliminary study we present an examination of a new x-ray diffraction technique that employs hollow annular and semi-annular beams to measure aspects of 'bone quality'. We present diffractograms obtained with our approach from ex vivo bone specimens at Mo Kα and W Kα energies. Primary data is parameterized to provide estimates of bone characteristics and to indicate the precision with which these can be determined.We acknowledge gratefully the funding provided by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) grant number EP/K020196/

SIMBA: scalable inversion in optical tomography using deep denoising priors

Two features desired in a three-dimensional (3D) optical tomographic image reconstruction algorithm are the ability to reduce imaging artifacts and to do fast processing of large data volumes. Traditional iterative inversion algorithms are impractical in this context due to their heavy computational and memory requirements. We propose and experimentally validate a novel scalable iterative mini-batch algorithm (SIMBA) for fast and high-quality optical tomographic imaging. SIMBA enables highquality imaging by combining two complementary information sources: the physics of the imaging system characterized by its forward model and the imaging prior characterized by a denoising deep neural net. SIMBA easily scales to very large 3D tomographic datasets by processing only a small subset of measurements at each iteration. We establish the theoretical fixedpoint convergence of SIMBA under nonexpansive denoisers for convex data-fidelity terms. We validate SIMBA on both simulated and experimentally collected intensity diffraction tomography (IDT) datasets. Our results show that SIMBA can significantly reduce the computational burden of 3D image formation without sacrificing the imaging quality.https://arxiv.org/abs/1911.13241First author draf

Mapping Atomic Motions with Electrons: Toward the Quantum Limit to Imaging Chemistry

Recent advances in ultrafast electron and X-ray diffraction have pushed imaging of structural dynamics into the femtosecond time domain, that is, the fundamental time scale of atomic motion. New physics can be reached beyond the scope of traditional diffraction or reciprocal space imaging. By exploiting the high time resolution, it has been possible to directly observe the collapse of nearly innumerable possible nuclear motions to a few key reaction modes that direct chemistry. It is this reduction in dimensionality in the transition state region that makes chemistry a transferable concept, with the same class of reactions being applicable to synthetic strategies to nearly arbitrary levels of complexity. The ability to image the underlying key reaction modes has been achieved with resolution to relative changes in atomic positions to better than 0.01 Å, that is, comparable to thermal motions. We have effectively reached the fundamental space-time limit with respect to the reaction energetics and imaging the acting forces. In the process of ensemble measured structural changes, we have missed the quantum aspects of chemistry. This perspective reviews the current state of the art in imaging chemistry in action and poses the challenge to access quantum information on the dynamics. There is the possibility with the present ultrabright electron and X-ray sources, at least in principle, to do tomographic reconstruction of quantum states in the form of a Wigner function and density matrix for the vibrational, rotational, and electronic degrees of freedom. Accessing this quantum information constitutes the ultimate demand on the spatial and temporal resolution of reciprocal space imaging of chemistry. Given the much shorter wavelength and corresponding intrinsically higher spatial resolution of current electron sources over X-rays, this Perspective will focus on electrons to provide an overview of the challenge on both the theory and the experimental fronts to extract the quantum aspects of molecular dynamics