Phase contrast tomography

In this project, we have built a phase contrast X-ray tomograph based on a microfocus Cu source. Traditional X-ray imaging is based on absorption contrast, which has poor contrast for small and weakly absorbing samples. Much better contrast can be achieved using phase contrast [Dierks 2020]. The system is based on a microfocus X-ray source with a Cu target, a high-resolution detector and a high-precision sample stage, as described in [Dierks 2023]. It's capable of X-ray absorption contrast and phase contrast imaging at a spatial resolution of about 1 micrometer in 2D and 3D. The image above shows part of a blueberry seed. A special feature of the system is that the scintillator can be replaced, which has allowed us to test novel perovskite nanowire scintillators [Zhang 2022] [Dierks 2023].