Bragg coherent modulation imaging for highly strained nanocrystals: a numerical study

Bragg coherent diffraction imaging (BCDI) is a unique and powerful method for tracking 3D strain fields non-destructively. While BCDI has been successfully applied to many scientific research fields and is in high demand, the reconstructed results for highly strained crystals are still subject to substantial uncertainties. Here, progress in improving the suitability of BCDI for general samples by exploiting wavefront modulation is reported. Extensive numerical simulations demonstrate that significant improvements over the current method for reconstructing highly strained model nanocrystals can be achieved. The proposed method strongly suppresses the appearance of ambiguous solutions, and exhibits fast convergence and high robustness in phase retrieval. Possible experimental difficulties in implementing this method are discussed in detail.