High-resolution high-efficiency X-ray imaging system based on the in-line Bragg magnifier and the Medipix detector.

The performance of a recently developed full-field X-ray micro-imaging system based on an in-line Bragg magnifier is reported. The system is composed of quasi-channel-cut crystals in combination with a Medipix single-photon-counting detector. A theoretical and experimental study of the imaging performance of the crystals-detector combination and a comparison with a standard indirect detector typically used in high-resolution X-ray imaging schemes are reported. The spatial resolution attained by our system is about 0.75 µm, limited only by the current magnification. Compared with an indirect detector system, this system features a better efficiency, signal-to-noise ratio and spatial resolution. The optimal working resolution range of this system is between ∼0.4 µm and 1 µm, filling the gap between transmission X-ray microscopes and indirect detectors. Applications for coherent full-field imaging of weakly absorbing samples are shown and discussed.

Quantitative comparison between two phase contrast techniques: diffraction enhanced imaging and phase propagation imaging.

Two x-ray phase contrast imaging techniques are compared in a quantitative way for future mammographic applications: diffraction enhanced imaging (DEI) and phase propagation imaging (PPI). DEI involves, downstream of the sample, an analyser crystal acting as an angular filter for x-rays refracted by the sample. PPI simply uses the propagation (Fresnel diffraction) of the monochromatic and partially coherent x-ray beam over large distances. The information given by the two techniques is assessed by theoretical simulations and compared at the level of the experimental results for different kinds of samples (phantoms and real tissues). The imaging parameters such as the energy, the angular position of the analyser crystal in the DEI case or the sample to detector distance in the PPI case were varied in order to optimize the image quality in terms of contrast, visibility and figure of merit.

A tunable multicolour 'rainbow' filter for improved stress and dislocation density field mapping in polycrystals using X-ray Laue microdiffraction.

White-beam X-ray Laue microdiffraction allows fast mapping of crystal orientation and strain fields in polycrystals, with a submicron spatial resolution in two dimensions. In the well crystallized parts of the grains, the analysis of Laue-spot positions provides the local deviatoric strain tensor. The hydrostatic part of the strain tensor may also be obtained, at the cost of a longer measuring time, by measuring the energy profiles of the Laue spots using a variable-energy monochromatic beam. A new `rainbow' method is presented, which allows measurement of the energy profiles of the Laue spots while remaining in the white-beam mode. It offers mostly the same information as the latter monochromatic method, but with two advantages: (i) the simultaneous measurement of the energy profiles and the Laue pattern; (ii) rapid access to energy profiles of a larger number of spots, for equivalent scans on the angle of the optical element. The method proceeds in the opposite way compared to a monochromator-based method, by simultaneously removing several sharp energy bands from the incident beam, instead of selecting a single one. It uses a diamond single crystal placed upstream of the sample. Each Laue diffraction by diamond lattice planes attenuates the corresponding energy in the incident spectrum. By rotating the crystal, the filtered-out energies can be varied in a controlled manner, allowing one to determine the extinction energies of several Laue spots of the studied sample. The energies filtered out by the diamond crystal are obtained by measuring its Laue pattern with another two-dimensional detector, at each rotation step. This article demonstrates the feasibility of the method and its validation through the measurement of a known lattice parameter.