X-ray deconvolution microscopy.

ABSTRACT

Recent advances in single-photon-counting detectors are enabling the development of novel approaches to reach micrometer-scale resolution in x-ray imaging. One example of such a technology are the MEDIPIX3RX-based detectors, such as the LAMBDA which can be operated with a small pixel size in combination with real-time on-chip charge-sharing correction. This characteristic results in a close to ideal, box-like point spread function which we made use of in this study. The proposed method is based on raster-scanning the sample with sub-pixel sized steps in front of the detector. Subsequently, a deconvolution algorithm is employed to compensate for blurring introduced by the overlap of pixels with a well defined point spread function during the raster-scanning. The presented approach utilizes standard laboratory x-ray equipment while we report resolutions close to 10 µm. The achieved resolution is shown to follow the relationship [Formula see text] with the pixel-size p of the detector and the number of raster-scanning steps n.