Inhomogeneous probes for BCDI: Toward the imaging of dynamic and distorted crystals

This work proposes an innovative approach to improve Bragg coherent diffraction imaging (BCDI) microscopy applied to time evolving crystals and/or non-homogeneous crystalline strain fields, identified as two major limitations of BCDI microscopy. Speckle BCDI (spBCDI), introduced here, rests on the ability of a strongly non-uniform illumination to induce a convolution of the three-dimensional (3D) frequency content associated with the finite-size crystal and a kernel acting perpendicularly to the illumination beam. In the framework of Bragg diffraction geometry, this convolution is beneficial as it encodes some 3D information about the sample in a single two-dimensional (2D) measurement, i.e., in the detector plane. With this approach, we demonstrate that we can drastically reduce the sampling frequency along the rocking curve direction and still obtain data sets with enough information to be inverted by a traditional phase retrieval algorithm. Numerical simulations, performed for a highly distorted crystal, show that spBCDI allows a gain in the sampling ratio ranging between 4 and 20 along the rocking curve scan, for a speckle illumination with individual speckle size of 50 nm. Furthermore, spBCDI allows working at low intensity levels, leading to an additional gain for the total scanning time. Reductions of a factor of about 32 were numerically observed. Thus, measurements in the 0.3 s time scale at 4th generation synchrotrons become feasible, with a remarkable performance for the imaging of strongly distorted crystals. Practical details on the implementation of the method are also discussed.Comment: 17 pages, 11 figure

Inversion of the Diffraction Pattern from an Inhomogeneously Strained Crystal using an Iterative Algorithm

The displacement field in highly non uniformly strained crystals is obtained by addition of constraints to an iterative phase retrieval algorithm. These constraints include direct space density uniformity and also constraints to the sign and derivatives of the different components of the displacement field. This algorithm is applied to an experimental reciprocal space map measured using high resolution X-ray diffraction from an array of silicon lines and the obtained component of the displacement field is in very good agreement with the one calculated using a finite element model.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Oxygen Absorption in Free-Standing Porous Silicon: A Structural, Optical and Kinetic Analysis

Porous silicon (PSi) is a nanostructured material possessing a huge surface area per unit volume. In consequence, the adsorption and diffusion of oxygen in PSi are particularly important phenomena and frequently cause significant changes in its properties. In this paper, we study the thermal oxidation of p+-type free-standing PSi fabricated by anodic electrochemical etching. These free-standing samples were characterized by nitrogen adsorption, thermogravimetry, atomic force microscopy and powder X-ray diffraction. The results show a structural phase transition from crystalline silicon to a combination of cristobalite and quartz, passing through amorphous silicon and amorphous silicon-oxide structures, when the thermal oxidation temperature increases from 400 to 900 °C. Moreover, we observe some evidence of a sinterization at 400 °C and an optimal oxygen-absorption temperature about 700 °C. Finally, the UV/Visible spectrophotometry reveals a red and a blue shift of the optical transmittance spectra for samples with oxidation temperatures lower and higher than 700 °C, respectively

Lensless X-ray imaging in reflection geometry

Lensless X-ray imaging techniques such as coherent diffraction imaging and ptychography, and Fourier transform holography can provide time-resolved, diffraction-limited images. Nearly all examples of these techniques have focused on transmission geometry, restricting the samples and reciprocal spaces that can be investigated. We report a lensless X-ray technique developed for imaging in Bragg and small-angle scattering geometries, which may also find application in transmission geometries. We demonstrate this by imaging a nanofabricated pseudorandom binary structure in small-angle reflection geometry. The technique can be used with extended objects, places no restriction on sample size, and requires no additional sample masking. The realization of X-ray lensless imaging in reflection geometry opens up the possibility of single-shot imaging of surfaces in thin films, buried interfaces in magnetic multilayers, organic photovoltaic and field-effect transistor devices, or Bragg planes in a single crystal

Ptychography

Ptychography is a computational imaging technique. A detector records an extensive data set consisting of many inference patterns obtained as an object is displaced to various positions relative to an illumination field. A computer algorithm of some type is then used to invert these data into an image. It has three key advantages: it does not depend upon a good-quality lens, or indeed on using any lens at all; it can obtain the image wave in phase as well as in intensity; and it can self-calibrate in the sense that errors that arise in the experimental set up can be accounted for and their effects removed. Its transfer function is in theory perfect, with resolution being wavelength limited. Although the main concepts of ptychography were developed many years ago, it has only recently (over the last 10 years) become widely adopted. This chapter surveys visible light, x-ray, electron, and EUV ptychography as applied to microscopic imaging. It describes the principal experimental arrangements used at these various wavelengths. It reviews the most common inversion algorithms that are nowadays employed, giving examples of meta code to implement these. It describes, for those new to the field, how to avoid the most common pitfalls in obtaining good quality reconstructions. It also discusses more advanced techniques such as modal decomposition and strategies to cope with three-dimensional () multiple scattering

Introduction to the special issue on high-resolution X-ray diffraction and imaging

International audienceThe 13th Biennial Conference on High-Resolution X-ray Diffraction and Imaging (XTOP 2016) was held in Brno, Czech Republic, in September 2016. It was organized by the Czech and Slovak Crystallographic Association in cooperation with the Masaryk University, Brno, and Charles University, Prague. The Organizing Committee was supported by an International Programme Committee including about 20 prominent scientists from several European and overseas countries, whose helpful suggestions for speakers are acknowledged. The conference was sponsored by the International Union of Crystallography and by several industrial sponsors...

Formation of porous silicon: an in situ investigation with high-resolution X-ray diffraction

PACS. 61.10.Eq X-ray scattering (including small-angle scattering), 68.55.-a Thin film structure and morphology, 81.07.-b Nanoscale materials and structures: fabrication and characterization, 68.55.Ac Nucleation and growth: microscopic aspects,

Inhomogeneous probes for Bragg Coherent Diffraction Imaging: Toward the imaging of dynamic and distorted crystals

International audienceThis work proposes an innovative approach to improve Bragg coherent diffraction imaging (BCDI) microscopy applied to time evolving crystals and/or non-homogeneous crystalline strain fields, identified as two major limitations of BCDI microscopy. Speckle BCDI (spBCDI), introduced here, rests on the ability of a strongly non-uniform illumination to induce a convolution of the three-dimensional (3D) frequency content associated with the finite-size crystal and a kernel acting perpendicularly to the illumination beam. In the framework of Bragg diffraction geometry, this convolution is beneficial as it encodes some 3D information about the sample in a single two-dimensional (2D) measurement, i.e., in the detector plane. With this approach, we demonstrate that we can drastically reduce the sampling frequency along the rocking curve direction and still obtain data sets with enough information to be inverted by a traditional phase retrieval algorithm. Numerical simulations, performed for a highly distorted crystal, show that spBCDI allows a gain in the sampling ratio ranging between 4 and 20 along the rocking curve scan, for a speckle illumination with individual speckle size of 50 nm. Furthermore, spBCDI allows working at low intensity levels, leading to an additional gain for the total scanning time. Reduction of a factor of about 32 were numerically observed. Thus, measurements in the 0.3 s time scale at 4th generation synchrotrons become feasible, with a remarkable performance for the imaging of strongly distorted crystals. Practical details on the implementation of the method are also discussed