Note: Contrast enhancement and artifact suppression in computed tomography using sinogram normalization.

The intensity and direction of the incident beam at the sample position in synchrotron full-field transmission X-ray microscopy is subject to change. Incident-beam fluctuation in computed tomography results in significant contrast degradation of the reconstructed image. In the present study, we devised a simple method by which that problem could be corrected using sinogram normalization. According to our results, the image contrast was improved by 13%, and the artifacts were suppressed.

Runout error correction in tomographic reconstruction by intensity summation method.

An alignment method for correction of the axial and radial runout errors of the rotation stage in X-ray phase-contrast computed tomography has been developed. Only intensity information was used, without extra hardware or complicated calculation. Notably, the method, as demonstrated herein, can utilize the halo artifact to determine displacement.

A method of hard X-ray phase-shifting digital holography.

A new method of phase-shifting digital holography is demonstrated in the hard X-ray region. An in-line-type phase-shifting holography setup was installed in a 6.80 keV hard X-ray synchrotron beamline. By placing a phase plate consisting of a hole and a band at the focusing point of a Fresnel lens, the relative phase of the reference and objective beams could be successfully shifted for use with a three-step phase-shift algorithm. The system was verified by measuring the shape of a gold test pattern and a silica sphere.

Measurement of coherence length and incoherent source size of hard x-ray undulator beamline at Pohang Light Source-II.

We measured the spatial coherence length and incoherent source size of a hard x-ray undulator beamline at Pohang Light Source-II, the stored electron energy of which has been increased from 2.5 GeV to 3 GeV. The coherence length was determined by single-slit measurement of the visibility of the Fresnel diffraction pattern. The correlated incoherent source size was cross-checked for three different optics: the single slit, beryllium parabolic compound refractive lenses, and the Fresnel zone plate. We concluded that the undulator beamline has an effective incoherent source size (FWHM) of 540 µm (horizontal) × 50 µm (vertical).

Optical section imaging of the tilted planes by illumination-angle-scanning digital interference holography.

A new method of optical imaging that can generate the section images of arbitrarily tilted planes has been developed from illumination-angle-scanning digital interference holography. A set of complex object fields are reconstructed from the holograms captured as the illumination angle is varied with uniform intervals. After the complex fields are modified with phase ramps that match the tilt (relative to the hologram plane) of a desired observation plane, the image of the object sliced along the tilted plane is obtained from their superposition. The axial resolution of a system employing this method is measured with a step height standard, and it is applied to the tomographic inspection of a microelectromechanical system.

A compact, sample-in-atmospheric-pressure soft x-ray microscope developed at Pohang Light Source.

A full-field transmission soft x-ray microscope (TXM) was developed at the Pohang Light Source. With a 2 mm diameter condenser zone plate and a 40 nm outermost-zone-width objective zone plate, the TXM's achieved spatial resolution is better than 50 nm at the photon energy of 500 eV (wavelength: 2.49 nm). The TXM is portable and mounted in tandem with a 7B1 spectroscopy end station. The sample position is outside the vacuum, allowing for quick sample changes and enhanced in situ experimental capability. In addition, the TXM is pinhole-free and easy to align, having commercial mounts located outside the vacuum components.

Illumination-angle-scanning digital interference holography for optical section imaging.

We propose and experimentally demonstrate a new (to our knowledge) digital holographic method to reconstruct section images of objects with wavelength-dependent reflectivity. A number of holograms of an object are taken as the illumination angle of the laser beam with a specific wavelength is changed in regular intervals. The complex object fields reconstructed from the holograms are numerically superposed to show the image of a sliced section of the object, whose position and thickness can be chosen arbitrarily. By changing the wavelength of the illumination beam, wavelength-dependent section images can be obtained with our method.

Pixel-size-maintained image reconstruction of digital holograms on arbitrarily tilted planes by the angular spectrum method.

We present an effective method for the pixel-size-maintained reconstruction of images on arbitrarily tilted planes in digital holography. The method is based on the plane wave expansion of the diffraction wave fields and the three-axis rotation of the wave vectors. The images on the tilted planes are reconstructed without loss of the frequency contents of the hologram and have the same pixel sizes. Our method shows good results in the extreme cases of large tilting angles and in the region closer than the paraxial case. The effectiveness of the method is demonstrated by both simulation and experiment.

Interframe intensity correlation matrix for self-calibration in phase-shifting interferometry.

A new method of estimating reference phase shifts in phase-shifting interferometry is proposed. The reference phase shifts are determined from a matrix that represents the interframe intensity correlation (IIC) of phase-shifted interferograms. The root-mean-square error of intensity measurement is automatically obtained from the smallest eigenvalue of the IIC matrix. The proposed method requires only four interferograms, unlike others, and can extract phase shifts reliably even from interferograms without well-defined fringes, such as speckle patterns. In typical conditions, reference phase shifts and wave-front phases can be determined with an accuracy of lambda/6310 and lambda/150, respectively. The validity of the method is tested by comparing it with other methods in experiments and simulations.

Least-squares phase estimation with multiple parameters in phase-shifting electronic speckle pattern interferometry.

We have developed an accurate and robust phase-estimation method in phase-shifting electronic speckle pattern interferometry. Unlike other methods that assume a constant phase within a fitting window, our method treats the phase variation with a gradient. A cost function that can utilize the information of pixel positions is formulated on the basis of a least-squares criterion. Powell's iteration method is applied to it to derive the phase and its gradient. An automatic consistency-checking routine and an algorithm that improves the initial guess of the iteration are developed for severe situations with large noise and steep phase variations.