SPRING, an effective and reliable framework for image reconstruction in single-particle Coherent Diffraction Imaging

Coherent Diffraction Imaging (CDI) is an experimental technique to image isolated structures by recording the scattered light. The sample density can be recovered from the scattered field through a Fourier Transform operation. However, the phase of the field is lost during the measurement and has to be algorithmically retrieved. Here we present SPRING, an analysis framework tailored to X-ray Free Electron Laser (XFEL) single-shot single-particle diffraction data that implements the Memetic Phase Retrieval method to mitigate the shortcomings of conventional algorithms. We benchmark the approach on data acquired in two experimental campaigns at SwissFEL and European XFEL. Results reveal unprecedented stability and resilience of the algorithm’s behavior on the input parameters, and the capability of identifying the solution in conditions hardly treatable with conventional methods. A user-friendly implementation of SPRING is released as open-source software, aiming at being a reference tool for the CDI community at XFEL and synchrotron facilities.