Conventional (CP) and Fourier (FP) ptychography have emerged as versatile quantitative phase imaging techniques. While the main application cases for each technique are different, namely lens-less short wavelength imaging for CP and lens-based visible light imaging for FP, both methods share a common algorithmic ground. CP and FP have in part independently evolved to include experimentally robust forward models and inversion techniques. This separation has resulted in a plethora of algorithmic extensions, some of which have not crossed the boundary from one modality to the other. Here, we present an open source, cross-platform software, called PtyLab, enabling both CP and FP data analysis in a unified framework.

PtyLab’s major strengths lie in (1) the uniform framework for CP and FP enabling cross-pollination between the two domains, (2) the availability in three widely used programming languages (Matlab, Python, and Julia), making it easy for researchers with different programming backgrounds to exchange and benchmark code snippets and data anlyses, and (3) its versatile code architecture suited both for beginners and experts interested in rapid ptychographic algorithm prototyping. In addition, a plethora of self-calibration features (e.g. aPIE, zPIE) and algorithmic novelties (e.g. conversion between CP and FP, POCT, CP with external reference beam, sPIE) are available that to our knowledge have previously not been featured in open access ptychography code. Various functions for scan grid generation help the user to optimize data acquisition and postprocessing. For further information the reader is referred to the GitHub website with its accompanying tutorials as well as the open data provided along with it.