Incoherent diffraction imaging with a pseudo-thermal light source
Abstract
Incoherent diffraction imaging—IDI—is a lensless imaging technique that has been recently proposed to exploit the partial coherence of incoherently scattered light to retrieve structural information from the scattering centers. Similar to the stellar intensity interferometry of Hanbury Brown and Twiss, the signal builds up on the second-order spatial correlations of the emitted light. The complex spatial distribution of the target is thereby encoded in the spatial intensity fluctuations of the scattered light. The first experimental realizations of this imaging technique have been realized using the fluorescence excited by an ultra-short x-ray pulse at free electron laser (FEL) facilities. Here, we propose an alternative setup based on a table-top pseudo-thermal light source that works as an optical emulator of the FEL experiment. This setup allows us to explore IDI under a wide range of physically relevant conditions as well as to benchmark numerical and analytical models currently used to determine the imaging capabilities of this technique.