On the use of the scattering amplitude in coherent X-ray Bragg diffraction imaging

Abstract

Lens-less imaging of crystals with coherent X-ray diffraction offers some unique possibilities for strain-field characterization. It relies on numerically retrieving the phase of the scattering amplitude from a crystal illuminated with coherent X-rays. In practice, the algorithms encode this amplitude as a discrete Fourier transform of an effective or Bragg electron density. This short article suggests a detailed route from the classical expression of the (continuous) scattering amplitude to this discrete function. The case of a heterogeneous incident field is specifically detailed. Six assumptions are listed and quantitatively discussed when no such analysis was found in the literature. Details are provided for two of them: the fact that the structure factor varies in the vicinity of the probed reciprocal lattice vector, and the polarization factor, which is heterogeneous along the measured diffraction patterns. With progress in X-ray sources, data acquisition and analysis, it is believed that some approximations will prove inappropriate in the near future.