The work performed on the first year of the project laid out the foundations for these three main pillars: soft and hard x-ray optics design, identification of the numerical framework for the special case of x-ray plenoptic imaging, and integration of both worlds in a coherent design.
In order to further these goals, we have designed and built the metrology stations where this data will be acquired. In parallel, we have installed small demonstration setups to check some particular technical aspects in the imaging process. In the course of this work, we developed a new wavefront sensor, a new X-ray optic, a new 3D microscope and the first stereoscopic imaging from two coherent microscopy images in the soft X-rays. While doing so, we kept pushing the boundaries of phase contrast imaging in X-rays, a technique to be incorporated in VOXEL at a later stage in the project.
The main blocks of plenoptic reconstruction were put in place: a mathematical equivalence between plenoptic imaging and limited angle tomography was found (CWI); a first algorithm for treatment of plenoptic
photographic data was built and post-processed by tomographic techniques (IO/LOA/CWI); a full-field transport code was put in place in advance of phase contrast goals (UPM) and ray-trace code was implemented for
plenoptic imaging (UPM/IO); and training of the VOXEL team for nano-imaging goals with direct feedback from end-users (CNR) started at facilities such as synchrotrons.
We have made great advances towards the goals of the project, and to summarize the main highlights, we can identify:
1) Prototype 1: The plenoptic camera prototype in the “water window”
2) Prototype 2: The plenoptic camera prototype in the “hard X-rays” (for small biological sample imaging)
3) Demonstrator 1: A plenoptic system working with coherent soft X-rays is being tested at IST.
4) Demonstrator 2: An emulation of the plenoptic system at hard X-rays has been recorded at CWI
We now have also 2 open source algorithms to process plenoptic images
5) Plenotomos at CWI –
https://github.com/cicwi/plenoptomos(odnośnik otworzy się w nowym oknie)). Plenoptomos is an open-source python package that enables advanced reconstruction of light-fields in a wide range of light wavelengths, from infra-red to X-rays.
6) EMcLAW simulation package, coupled with the AMReX library, is an open source code that allows to model the propagation of pulses over distances several orders of magnitude greater than their wavelength.
