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Three-dimensional inspection of nanostructures such as integrated circuits is important for security and reliability assurance. Two scanning operations are required: ptychographic to recover the complex transmissivity of the specimen; and rotation of the specimen to acquire multiple projections covering the 3D spatial frequency domain. Two types of rotational scanning are possible: tomographic and laminographic. For flat, extended samples, for which the full 180 degree coverage is not possible, the latter is preferable because it provides better coverage of the 3D spatial frequency domain compared to limited-angle tomography. It is also because the amount of attenuation through the sample is approximately the same for all projections. However, both techniques are time consuming because of extensive acquisition and computation time. Here, we demonstrate the acceleration of ptycho-laminographic reconstruction of integrated circuits with 16-times fewer angular samples and 4.67-times faster computation by using a physics-regularized deep self-supervised learning architecture. We check the fidelity of our reconstruction against a densely sampled reconstruction that uses full scanning and no learning. As already reported elsewhere [Zhou and Horstmeyer, Opt. Express, 28(9), pp. 12872-12896], we observe improvement of reconstruction quality even over the densely sampled reconstruction, due to the ability of the self-supervised learning kernel to fill the missing cone., Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures, 1 table

Noninvasive X-ray imaging of nanoscale three-dimensional objects, e.g. integrated circuits (ICs), generally requires two types of scanning: ptychographic, which is translational and returns estimates of complex electromagnetic field through ICs; and tomographic scanning, which collects complex field projections from multiple angles. Here, we present Attentional Ptycho-Tomography (APT), an approach trained to provide accurate reconstructions of ICs despite incomplete measurements, using a dramatically reduced amount of angular scanning. Training process includes regularizing priors based on typical IC patterns and the physics of X-ray propagation. We demonstrate that APT with 12-time reduced angles achieves fidelity comparable to the gold standard with the original set of angles. With the same set of reduced angles, APT also outperforms baseline reconstruction methods. In our experiments, APT achieves 108-time aggregate reduction in data acquisition and computation without compromising quality. We expect our physics-assisted machine learning framework could also be applied to other branches of nanoscale imaging., Comment: 27 pages, 7 figures

X-ray ptychography imaging at synchrotron facilities like the Advanced Photon Source (APS) involves controlling instrument hardwares to collect a set of diffraction patterns from overlapping coherent illumination spots on extended samples, managing data storage, reconstructing ptychographic images from acquired diffraction patterns, and providing the visualization of results and feedback. In addition to the complicated workflow, ptychography instrument could produce up to several TB's of data per second that is needed to be processed in real time. This brings up the need to develop a high performance, robust and user friendly processing software package for ptychographic data analysis. In this paper we present a software framework which provides functionality of visualization, work flow control, and data reconstruction. To accelerate the computation and large datasets process, the data reconstruction part is implemented with three algorithms, ePIE, DM and LSQML using CUDA-C on GPU., Comment: X-Ray Nanoimaging: Instruments and Methods V

We present an interrogation laser system for a transportable strontium lattice clock operating at 698 nm, which is based on an ultra-low-expansion glass reference cavity. Transportability is achieved by implementing a rigid, compact, and vibration insensitive mounting of the 12 cm-long reference cavity, sustaining shocks of up to 50 g. The cavity is mounted at optimized support points that independently constrain all degrees of freedom. This mounting concept is especially beneficial for cavities with a ratio of length $L$ over diameter $D$ $L/D>1$. Generally large $L$ helps to reduce thermal noise-induced laser frequency instability while small $D$ leads to small cavity volume. The frequency instability was evaluated, reaching its thermal noise floor of $\mathrm{mod}\,\sigma_{\rm y} \approx 3 \times 10^{-16}$ for averaging times between 0.5 s and 10 s. The laser system was successfully operated during several field studies.

The advent of novel measurement instrumentation can lead to paradigm shifts in scientific research. Optical atomic clocks, due to their unprecedented stability and uncertainty, are already being used to test physical theories and herald a revision of the International System of units (SI). However, to unlock their potential for cross-disciplinary applications such as relativistic geodesy, a major challenge remains. This is their transformation from highly specialized instruments restricted to national metrology laboratories into flexible devices deployable in different locations. Here we report the first field measurement campaign performed with a ubiquitously applicable $^{87}$Sr optical lattice clock. We use it to determine the gravity potential difference between the middle of a mountain and a location 90 km apart, exploiting both local and remote clock comparisons to eliminate potential clock errors. A local comparison with a $^{171}$Yb lattice clock also serves as an important check on the international consistency of independently developed optical clocks. This campaign demonstrates the exciting prospects for transportable optical clocks.