Fast Eikonal Phase Retrieval for High-Throughput Beamlines

Abstract: We introduce a fast Eikonal Phase Retrieval (EPR) formulation that accelerates eikonal phase retrieval by more than two orders of magnitude while retaining controlled accuracy. The method is derived from a second-order asymptotic expansion in the propagation distance $L$ and complemented by the leading Wentzel--Kramers--Brillouin (WKB) wave-optics correction, yielding an efficient iterative correction scheme preconditioned by FFT-diagonal, energy-dependent inverse operators (Paganin-type filters). To ensure robustness across practical experimental regimes, we combine two complementary solvers: (i) a local $O(L^2)$ closure that is accurate when eikonal shifts remain sub-pixel, and (ii) a non-local formulation for multi-pixel shifts, in which intensity is propagated through an explicit eikonal ray mapping using a mass-conserving bilinear redisribution on the detector grid, and detector residuals are transferred back to the object grid by the corresponding adjoint (transpose), implemented as bilinear interpolation, before applying an approximate FFT-diagonal preconditioner to accelerate convergence. The same framework supports polychromatic data through a compact spectral discretisation, allowing energy-dependent transport and inversion while keeping the iteration GPU/FFT efficient. Overall, this unified approach enables accurate and computationally efficient phase retrieval across propagation conditions relevant to high-throughput PPC-$μ$CT experiments.