Coherent diffractive imaging of time-evolving samples with improved temporal resolution

Abstract

Bragg coherent x-ray diffractive imaging is a powerful technique for investigating dynamic nanoscale processes in nanoparticles immersed in reactive, realistic environments. Its temporal resolution is limited, however, by the oversampling requirements of three-dimensional phase retrieval. Here, we show that incorporating the entire measurement time series, which is typically a continuous physical process, into phase retrieval allows the oversampling requirement at each time step to be reduced, leading to a subsequent improvement in the temporal resolution by a factor of 2--20 times. The increased time resolution will allow imaging of faster dynamics and of radiation-dose-sensitive samples. This approach, which we call ``chrono CDI,'' may find use in improving the time resolution in other imaging techniques.