Letter abstract
Nature Materials 7, 134 - 137 (2008)
Published online: 20 January 2008 | doi:10.1038/nmat2096
Subject Category: Characterisation and analytical techniques
Hard-X-ray dark-field imaging using a grating interferometer
F. Pfeiffer1,2, M. Bech3, O. Bunk1, P. Kraft1, E. F. Eikenberry1, Ch. Brönnimann1, C. Grünzweig1 & C. David1
Imaging with visible light today uses numerous contrast mechanisms, including bright- and dark-field contrast, phase-contrast schemes and confocal and fluorescence-based methods1. X-ray imaging, on the other hand, has only recently seen the development of an analogous variety of contrast modalities. Although X-ray phase-contrast imaging could successfully be implemented at a relatively early stage with several techniques2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, dark-field imaging, or more generally scattering-based imaging, with hard X-rays and good signal-to-noise ratio, in practice still remains a challenging task even at highly brilliant synchrotron sources12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18. In this letter, we report a new approach on the basis of a grating interferometer that can efficiently yield dark-field scatter images of high quality, even with conventional X-ray tube sources. Because the image contrast is formed through the mechanism of small-angle scattering, it provides complementary and otherwise inaccessible structural information about the specimen at the micrometre and submicrometre length scale. Our approach is fully compatible with conventional transmission radiography and a recently developed hard-X-ray phase-contrast imaging scheme11. Applications to X-ray medical imaging, industrial non-destructive testing and security screening are discussed.
- Paul Scherrer Institut, CH-5232 Villigen PSI, Switzerland
- École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
- Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark
Correspondence to: F. Pfeiffer1,2 e-mail: franz.pfeiffer@psi.ch
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