Holographic X-ray Phase Contrast Imaging with Partial Coherence: Uniqueness and Reconstructions from Intensity Correlations

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Hohage, Thorsten, Karimi, Milad, Müller, Björn
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866918529758920704
author Hohage, Thorsten
Karimi, Milad
Müller, Björn
author_facet Hohage, Thorsten
Karimi, Milad
Müller, Björn
contents Holographic coherent X-ray imaging enables nanoscale imaging of biological cells and tissues, rendering both phase and absorption contrast, i.e. real and imaginary parts of the refractive index. Unlike the standard model, which assumes a perfectly coherent incident beam, we consider partial coherence characterized by a known covariance operator. In addition, we assume time-resolved intensity measurements, granting access not only to expected intensities but also to their correlations. We investigate the information content of these correlations and analytically demonstrate that, under a symmetry-breaking condition on the sample and the illumination area, both phase and absorption contrast can be uniquely recovered in both the full and the linearized models. A key challenge in numerical reconstruction is the substantial increase in data dimensionality caused by computing intensity correlations during preprocessing. We propose a novel approach that leverages a low-rank assumption on the incident beam covariance operator, bypassing explicit correlation computation while still exploiting its full information. Numerical experiments demonstrate its feasibility, yielding accurate simultaneous reconstructions of phase and absorption contrast.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2605_30146
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Holographic X-ray Phase Contrast Imaging with Partial Coherence: Uniqueness and Reconstructions from Intensity Correlations
Hohage, Thorsten
Karimi, Milad
Müller, Björn
Analysis of PDEs
Numerical Analysis
Holographic coherent X-ray imaging enables nanoscale imaging of biological cells and tissues, rendering both phase and absorption contrast, i.e. real and imaginary parts of the refractive index. Unlike the standard model, which assumes a perfectly coherent incident beam, we consider partial coherence characterized by a known covariance operator. In addition, we assume time-resolved intensity measurements, granting access not only to expected intensities but also to their correlations. We investigate the information content of these correlations and analytically demonstrate that, under a symmetry-breaking condition on the sample and the illumination area, both phase and absorption contrast can be uniquely recovered in both the full and the linearized models. A key challenge in numerical reconstruction is the substantial increase in data dimensionality caused by computing intensity correlations during preprocessing. We propose a novel approach that leverages a low-rank assumption on the incident beam covariance operator, bypassing explicit correlation computation while still exploiting its full information. Numerical experiments demonstrate its feasibility, yielding accurate simultaneous reconstructions of phase and absorption contrast.
title Holographic X-ray Phase Contrast Imaging with Partial Coherence: Uniqueness and Reconstructions from Intensity Correlations
topic Analysis of PDEs
Numerical Analysis
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.30146