Water Window Ptychographic Imaging with Characterized Coherent X-rays

Abstract: We report on a ptychographical coherent diffractive imaging experiment in the water window with focused soft X-rays at $500~\mathrm{eV}$. An X-ray beam with high degree of coherence was selected for ptychography at the P04 beamline of the PETRA III synchrotron radiation source. We measured the beam coherence with the newly developed non-redundant array method. A pinhole $2.6~\mathrm{\mu m}$ in size selected the coherent part of the beam and was used for ptychographic measurements of a lithographically manufactured test sample and fossil diatom. The achieved resolution was $53~\mathrm{nm}$ for the test sample and only limited by the size of the detector. The diatom was imaged at a resolution better than $90~\mathrm{nm}$.