title: X-ray phase-contrast tomography with a compact laser-driven synchrotron source.
abstract: Between X-ray tubes and large-scale synchrotron sources, a large gap in performance exists with respect to the monochromaticity and brilliance of the X-ray beam. However, due to their size and cost, large-scale synchrotrons are not available for more routine applications in small and medium-sized academic or industrial laboratories. This gap could be closed by laser-driven compact synchrotron light sources (CLS), which use an infrared (IR) laser cavity in combination with a small electron storage ring. Hard X-rays are produced through the process of inverse Compton scattering upon the intersection of the electron bunch with the focused laser beam. The produced X-ray beam is intrinsically monochromatic and highly collimated. This makes a CLS well-suited for applications of more advanced--and more challenging--X-ray imaging approaches, such as X-ray multimodal tomography. Here we present, to our knowledge, the first results of a first successful demonstration experiment in which a monochromatic X-ray beam from a CLS was used for multimodal, i.e., phase-, dark-field, and attenuation-contrast, X-ray tomography. We show results from a fluid phantom with different liquids and a biomedical application example in the form of a multimodal CT scan of a small animal (mouse, ex vivo). The results highlight particularly that quantitative multimodal CT has become feasible with laser-driven CLS, and that the results outperform more conventional approaches.
authors.affiliation: Physik-Department und Institut für Medizintechnik, Technische Universität München, 85748 Garching, Germany; elena.eggl@ph.tum.de.
authors.forename: Elena
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Eggl
authors.affiliation: Physik-Department und Institut für Medizintechnik, Technische Universität München, 85748 Garching, Germany;
authors.forename: Simone
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Schleede
authors.affiliation: Physik-Department und Institut für Medizintechnik, Technische Universität München, 85748 Garching, Germany; Medical Radiation Physics, Lund University, 22185 Lund, Sweden;
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bech
authors.affiliation: Physik-Department und Institut für Medizintechnik, Technische Universität München, 85748 Garching, Germany;
authors.forename: Klaus
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Achterhold
authors.affiliation: Lyncean Technologies, Inc., Palo Alto, CA 94306;
authors.forename: Roderick
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Loewen
authors.affiliation: SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA 94025; and.
authors.forename: Ronald D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Ruth
authors.affiliation: Physik-Department und Institut für Medizintechnik, Technische Universität München, 85748 Garching, Germany; Institut für Radiologie, Klinikum rechts der Isar, Technische Universität München, 81675 München, Germany.
authors.forename: Franz
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Pfeiffer
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005557:Formaldehyde / Q000737:chemistry; D005583:Fourier Analysis; D007368:Interferometry / Q000379:methods; D007834:Lasers; D008027:Light; D051379:Mice; D008858:Microscopy, Phase-Contrast / Q000379:methods*; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D020959:Polyethylene / Q000737:chemistry; D011857:Radiographic Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012542:Scattering, Radiation; D017356:Synchrotrons; D014056:Tomography, X-Ray / Q000379:methods*; D014965:X-Rays
chemical_list: D005557:Formaldehyde; D020959:Polyethylene
keywords: X-ray imaging; dark-field tomography; grating interferometer; inverse Compton X-rays; phase-contrast tomography