Research

Paper

TESTING March 12, 2026

Quantitative 3D imaging of highly distorted micro-crystals using Bragg ptychography

Authors

Peng Li, David Yang, Christoph Rau, Marc Allain, Felix Hofmann, Virginie Chamard

Abstract

Bragg coherent diffraction imaging (BCDI) fails to reliably retrieve phases in micro-crystals exhibiting strong strain inhomogeneities, which restricts its applicability. Here we show that three-dimensional Bragg ptychography (3DBP) overcomes this limitation by enabling stable inversion for large lattice distortions. Using a combination of experimental measurements and numerical tests, we compare the performance limits of the two approaches and demonstrate that 3DBP tolerates lattice distortions more than six times larger than BCDI. We also establish the sensitivity of both methods on a weakly distorted crystal, for which 3DBP yields smoother amplitude and phase fields with reduced short-length-scale artifacts. 3DBP thus provides a reliable route for imaging micro-crystals with large lattice distortions, expanding the scope of coherent X-ray Bragg microscopy to strongly deformed systems.

Metadata

arXiv ID: 2603.11584
Provider: ARXIV
Primary Category: physics.optics
Published: 2026-03-12
Fetched: 2026-03-13 06:02

Related papers

Raw Data (Debug)
{
  "raw_xml": "<entry>\n    <id>http://arxiv.org/abs/2603.11584v1</id>\n    <title>Quantitative 3D imaging of highly distorted micro-crystals using Bragg ptychography</title>\n    <updated>2026-03-12T06:17:56Z</updated>\n    <link href='https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.11584v1' rel='alternate' type='text/html'/>\n    <link href='https://arxiv.org/pdf/2603.11584v1' rel='related' title='pdf' type='application/pdf'/>\n    <summary>Bragg coherent diffraction imaging (BCDI) fails to reliably retrieve phases in micro-crystals exhibiting strong strain inhomogeneities, which restricts its applicability. Here we show that three-dimensional Bragg ptychography (3DBP) overcomes this limitation by enabling stable inversion for large lattice distortions. Using a combination of experimental measurements and numerical tests, we compare the performance limits of the two approaches and demonstrate that 3DBP tolerates lattice distortions more than six times larger than BCDI. We also establish the sensitivity of both methods on a weakly distorted crystal, for which 3DBP yields smoother amplitude and phase fields with reduced short-length-scale artifacts. 3DBP thus provides a reliable route for imaging micro-crystals with large lattice distortions, expanding the scope of coherent X-ray Bragg microscopy to strongly deformed systems.</summary>\n    <category scheme='http://arxiv.org/schemas/atom' term='physics.optics'/>\n    <category scheme='http://arxiv.org/schemas/atom' term='cond-mat.mtrl-sci'/>\n    <published>2026-03-12T06:17:56Z</published>\n    <arxiv:comment>4 figures</arxiv:comment>\n    <arxiv:primary_category term='physics.optics'/>\n    <author>\n      <name>Peng Li</name>\n    </author>\n    <author>\n      <name>David Yang</name>\n    </author>\n    <author>\n      <name>Christoph Rau</name>\n    </author>\n    <author>\n      <name>Marc Allain</name>\n    </author>\n    <author>\n      <name>Felix Hofmann</name>\n    </author>\n    <author>\n      <name>Virginie Chamard</name>\n    </author>\n  </entry>"
}