title: How many photons are needed to reconstruct random objects in coherent X-ray diffractive imaging?
abstract: This paper presents an investigation of the reconstructibility of coherent X-ray diffractive imaging diffraction patterns for a class of binary random `bitmap' objects. Combining analytical results and numerical simulations, the critical fluence per bitmap pixel is determined, for arbitrary contrast values (absorption level and phase shift), both for the optical near- and far-field. This work extends previous investigations based on information theory, enabling a comparison of the amount of information carried by single photons in different diffraction regimes. The experimental results show an order-of-magnitude agreement.
authors.affiliation: University of Göttingen, Institute for X-Ray Physics, Friedrich-Hund-Platz 1, 37077 Göttingen, Germany.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Jahn
authors.affiliation: University of Göttingen, Institute for X-Ray Physics, Friedrich-Hund-Platz 1, 37077 Göttingen, Germany.
authors.forename: R N
authors.initials: RN
authors.lastname: Wilke
authors.affiliation: University of Göttingen, Institute for X-Ray Physics, Friedrich-Hund-Platz 1, 37077 Göttingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chushkin
authors.affiliation: University of Göttingen, Institute for X-Ray Physics, Friedrich-Hund-Platz 1, 37077 Göttingen, Germany.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Salditt
keywords: CDI; coherent X-ray diffractive imaging; image reconstruction; maximum likelihood; phase retrieval