Quick x-ray microtomography using a laser-driven betatron source

Abstract

Laser-driven X-ray sources are an emerging alternative to conventional X-ray tubes and synchrotron sources. We present results on microtomographic X-ray imaging of a cancellous human bone sample using synchrotron-like betatron radiation. The source is driven by a 100-TW-class titaniumsapphire laser system and delivers over 10 8 X-ray photons per second. Compared to earlier studies, the acquisition time for an entire tomographic dataset has been reduced by more than an order of magnitude. Additionally, the reconstruction quality benefits from the use of statistical iterative reconstruction techniques. Depending on the desired resolution, tomographies are thereby acquired within minutes, which is an important milestone towards real-life applications of laser-plasma X-ray sources.

Towards high-energy, high-resolution computed tomography via a laser driven micro-spot gamma-ray source

“…Many advanced methods have been developed that provide more powerful noise processing, artefact handling, reconstruction efficiency and quality 33 , 34 . Thus, the image quality of laser based high-energy tomography can be further improved by using these advanced reconstruction methods, as shown in refs 21 , 22 .…”

“…In recent years, the betatron sources have been developed with sufficient stability. Applications in low-energy CT for biomedicine have been demonstrated 18 – 21 , indicating a bright prospect for laser-based high-resolution CT technology.…”

Research towards high-repetition rate laser-driven X-ray sources for imaging applications

“…The latter allows to acquire a single image per projection angle and perform a consistent reconstruction despite shot-to-shot X-ray flux fluctuations of the source. As a result, the data acquisition time for a centimeter-scale human bone sample was reduced from several hours to 180 seconds [12].…”

“…Another approach to reduce the acquisition time for medical applications is to minimize the necessary data underlying the tomographic reconstruction. This requires advanced reconstruction algorithms capable of handling reconstruction artifacts which are prone to appear for small data sets [12]. The research of such algorithms has proven a prosperous field over the last two decades and lead to the development of statistical iterative algorithms (SIRs) which are now becoming state of the art for computed tomographic technology [16] (see Fig.…”

“…As a proof of principle we performed a quick tomography encompassing 180 consecutive individual tomograms spanning 180 • at 1 • step size. The entire data set was taken within three minutes at 1 Hz repetition rate [12].…”