Role of the illumination spatial-frequency spectrum for ptychography

We demonstrate how the spatial-frequency spectrum of the x-ray illumination affects the reconstruction signal-to-noise ratio and resolution of ptychographic imaging. The spatial-frequency spectrum of a focused x-ray probe is enhanced by partially clipping the beam with an aperture near its focus. This approach presents a simple way of enhancing the illumination spectrum without demanding extra efforts in optics fabrication, and we experimentally demonstrate that it provides an improvement in image quality and resolution.