X-ray phase and dark-field imaging techniques provide complementary and inaccessible information compared to conventional X-ray absorption or visible light imaging. However, such methods typically require sophisticated experimental apparatus or X-ray beams with specific properties. Recently, an X-ray speckle-based technique has shown great potential for X-ray phase and dark-field imaging using a simple experimental arrangement. However, it still suffers from either poor resolution or the time consuming process of collecting a large number of images. To overcome these limitations, in this report we demonstrate that absorption, dark-field, phase contrast, and two orthogonal differential phase contrast images can simultaneously be generated by scanning a piece of abrasive paper in only one direction. We propose a novel theoretical approach to quantitatively extract the above five images by utilising the remarkable properties of speckles. Importantly, the technique has been extended from a synchrotron light source to utilise a lab-based microfocus X-ray source and flat panel detector. Removing the need to raster the optics in two directions significantly reduces the acquisition time and absorbed dose, which can be of vital importance for many biological samples. This new imaging method could potentially provide a breakthrough for numerous practical imaging applications in biomedical research and materials science.

High energy X-ray imaging has unique advantage over conventional X-ray imaging, since it enables higher penetration into materials with significantly reduced radiation damage. However, the absorption contrast in high energy region is considerably low due to the reduced X-ray absorption cross section for most materials. Even though the X-ray phase and dark-field imaging techniques can provide substantially increased contrast and complementary information, fabricating dedicated optics for high energies still remain a challenge. To address this issue, we present an alternative X-ray imaging approach to produce transmission, phase and scattering signals at high X-ray energies by using a random absorption mask. Importantly, in addition to the synchrotron radiation source, this approach has been demonstrated for practical imaging application with a laboratory-based microfocus X-ray source. This new imaging method could be potentially useful for studying thick samples or heavy materials for advanced research in materials science.

X-ray wavefront sensing techniques play an important role in both in situ metrology of X-ray optics and X-ray phase contrast imaging. In this letter, we report an approach to measure wavefront aberrations simply using abrasive paper. The wavefront phase change induced by the sample under test was extracted from the speckle displacement by applying a cross-correlation algorithm to two series of speckle images collected using two one-dimensional scans, whilst scanning the abrasive paper in a transverse direction to the incident X-ray beam. The angular sensitivity of the proposed method is shown to be around 2 nanoradians. The potential of the proposed technique for characterizing X-ray optics and the study of biomedical specimens is demonstrated by imaging representative samples.

X-ray dark-field imaging can provide inaccessible and complementary information compared to conventional absorption contrast imaging. However, extraction of the dark-field signal is difficult, and sophisticated optics are often required. In this Letter, we report a novel approach to generate high-quality dark-field images using a simple membrane. The dark-field image is extracted from the maximum correlation coefficient by applying a cross-correlation algorithm to a stack of speckle images collected by scanning a membrane in a transverse direction to the incident x-ray beam. The new method can also provide directional dark-field information, which is extremely useful for the study of strongly ordered systems. The potential of the proposed technique for nondestructive x-ray imaging is demonstrated by imaging representative samples.

Knowledge of the transverse coherence of hard x rays is essential, not only for understanding the source properties, but also to study the impact of x-ray optics. However, the precise measurement of transverse coherence in the x-ray regime is more difficult than in the visible light regime since it often involves complex experimental setups or sophisticated x-ray optics. In this paper, we present a model-free method to measure transverse coherence properties of x-ray beams by using a simple phase membrane. Our method allows one to map the two-dimensional source distribution in the transverse plane by analyzing the power spectrum of x-ray near-field speckle patterns, which are collected at a single distance only. The method has been validated by performing measurements for a range of source sizes, which was achieved by varying the vertical coupling of the electron beam in the Diamond storage ring. We expect that this method will be widely used in transverse coherence measurements for both synchrotron sources and x-ray free-electron lasers.