Phase-contrast microscopy at high x-ray energy with a laboratory setup

Abstract

We report on the design and realization of an x-ray imaging system for quantitative phase-contrast microscopy at high x-ray energy with laboratory-scale instrumentation. Phase and amplitude were separated quantitatively at x-ray energies up to 80 keV with micrometric spatial resolution. The accuracy of the results was tested against numerical simulations, and the spatial resolution was experimentally quantified by measuring a Siemens star phase object. This simple setup should find broad application in those areas of x-ray imaging where high energy and spatial resolution are simultaneously required and in those difficult cases where the sample contains materials with similar x-ray absorption.

Absorption, refraction and scattering retrieval with an edge-illumination-based imaging setup

“…Edge-illumination [9] and its area imaging counter part coded-aperture [22] are XPCI techniques capable of quantitative amplitude and phase retrieval [23]. These methods were implemented with synchrotron radiation [9] as well as with rotating anode [22; 23] and microfocal [24] X-ray tubes. The retrieval of ultrasmall-angle X-ray scattering in the hard X-rays regime was also recently developed for an edge-illumination set-up [25].…”

On the relative performance of edge illumination x‐ray phase‐contrast CT and conventional, attenuation‐based CT

“…In this context, note that spatial resolutions of tens of lm down to a few lm have been demonstrated to be feasible with EI, even when implemented in standard laboratories. 23,34 Finally, we would like to draw attention to the limitations of the presented analysis. First, it is based on assumptions (Section 3.A.)…”

Single-Shot X-ray Phase Retrieval through Hierarchical Data Analysis and a Multi-Aperture Analyser

“…Edge illumination (EI) [19] was developed at a synchrotron facility and later translated to laboratory sources [20]. It has been shown to provide high resolution, quantitative phase, and dark field images [21][22][23]. Low spatial and temporal coherence is extremely well tolerated by the technique, which is also stable against thermal and mechanical stresses [24][25][26][27].…”