Vila-Comamala Joan, Romano Lucia, Jefimovs Konstantins, Dejea Hector, Bonnin Anne, Cook Andrew C, Planinc Ivo, Cikes Maja, Wang Zhentian, Stampanoni Marco
Opt Express. 2021 Jan 18;29(2):2049-2064. doi: 10.1364/OE.414174.
X-ray phase contrast imaging is a powerful analysis technique for materials science and biomedicine. Here, we report on laboratory grating-based X-ray interferometry employing a microfocus X-ray source and a high Talbot order (35th) asymmetric geometry to achieve high angular sensitivity and high spatial resolution X-ray phase contrast imaging in a compact system (total length <1 m). The detection of very small refractive angles (∼50 nrad) at an interferometer design energy of 19 keV was enabled by combining small period X-ray gratings (1.0, 1.5 and 3.0 µm) and a single-photon counting X-ray detector (75 µm pixel size). The performance of the X-ray interferometer was fully characterized in terms of angular sensitivity and spatial resolution. Finally, the potential of laboratory X-ray phase contrast for biomedical imaging is demonstrated by obtaining high resolution X-ray phase tomographies of a mouse embryo embedded in solid paraffin and a formalin-fixed full-thickness sample of human left ventricle in water with a spatial resolution of 21.5 µm.
X射线相衬成像技术是材料科学和生物医学领域中一种强大的分析技术。在此，我们报告了基于实验室光栅的X射线干涉测量法，该方法采用微聚焦X射线源和高塔尔博特阶数（第35阶）非对称几何结构，以在紧凑系统（总长度<1米）中实现高角度灵敏度和高空间分辨率的X射线相衬成像。通过结合小周期X射线光栅（1.0、1.5和3.0微米）和单光子计数X射线探测器（像素尺寸为75微米），在19 keV的干涉仪设计能量下实现了对非常小的折射角（约50纳拉德）的检测。从角度灵敏度和空间分辨率方面对X射线干涉仪的性能进行了全面表征。最后，通过对嵌入固体石蜡中的小鼠胚胎和水中福尔马林固定的人左心室全层样本进行空间分辨率为21.5微米的高分辨率X射线相衬断层扫描，展示了实验室X射线相衬在生物医学成像中的潜力。
