Adaptive multi-beam X-ray ptychography

Ptychography has evolved as an important method for nanoscale X-ray imaging with synchrotron radiation. Recently, it has been proposed to work with multiple beams in parallel. The main advantage of so-called multi-beam ptychography is that larger areas can be imaged much faster than with a conventional single beam scan. We introduce adaptive multi-beam ptychography performed with two Fresnel zone plates, placed one behind the other. In contrast to previous demonstrations of multi-beam ptychography, our optical scheme allows for adapting the spatial beam separation to the needs of the sample under investigation, relaxes thickness requirements on zone plates and is straightforward to implement. Moreover, it is simple to switch between single and multi-beam illumination during the same experiment. This opens the possibility of combining large and fast overview scans with detailed imaging of certain regions of interests.