Diffraction imaging: The limits of partial coherence

Coherent diffraction imaging (CDI) typically requires that the source should be highly coherent both laterally and longitudinally. In this paper, we demonstrate that lateral and longitudinal partial coherence can be successfully included in a CDI reconstruction algorithm simultaneously using experimental x-ray data. We study the interplay between lateral partial coherence and longitudinal partial coherence and their relative influence on CDI. We compare our results against the coherence criteria published by Spence et al. [Spence et al., Ultramicroscopy 101, 149 (2004)] and show that for iterative ab initio phase-recovery algorithms based on those typically used in CDI and in cases where the coherence properties are known, we are able to relax the minimal coherence requirements by a factor of 2 both laterally and longitudinally, potentially yielding significant reduction in exposure time.