The application of X‐ray microscopy in materials science

Abstract

KEY WORDS.X-ray microscopy, microfocal radiography, contact microradiography, projection microradiography . SUMMARY X-ray microscopy is a form of high resolution radiography that uses low-energy X-rays (a10 keV) to enhance the contrast between light elements such as hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen and oxygen. As performed on compact laboratory equipment the technique can achieve spatial resolutions of roughly 1 pm in virtually any material given that the specimen is sufficiently thin (typically 0.2-2 mm) to be adequately transparent to low-energy X-rays. Notwithstanding that the technique has lately found favour in biomedical radiology, its considerable potential in other fields, notably the materials sciences, remains largely unexploited.The scope and potential of laboratory X-ray microscopy in the materials sciences is demonstrated here by its application to ceramics, elastomers, coal-chars and reinforced composites. In all cases the technique provided valuable microstructural characterization often unobtainable by any other non-destructive method. These examples demonstrate that laboratory X-ray microscopy offers much to the materials sciences and deserves a wider application than is current.

X-ray imaging: status and trends

“…There is no intrinsic reason for this limited application, and materials analysis uses are now appearing. 2 The availability of a microscopy with penetrating radiation will clearly have a significant impact on materials science, inspection, and the potential for predicting performance of finished products.…”

“…If we collect rrt for all projection angles we have the Radon transform of the function |x(x,j,z). Therefore, our goii in CT is to measure m az accurately as possible and then to invert equation (2) to give us n(x,y,z).…”

X-ray Imaging: Status and Trends

“…16 The TI-4849 chip is a 584x390 element device, with each element measuring 22x22 (tin 2 . When thermoelectrically cooled to -60° C, the dark current was only 10 electrons/sec per element, and was very reproducible.…”