First point-spread function and x-ray phase-contrast imaging results with an 88-mm diameter single crystal

Alex H Lumpkin; Alfred B Garson; Mark A Anastasio

doi:10.1063/1.5027499

First point-spread function and x-ray phase-contrast imaging results with an 88-mm diameter single crystal

Rev Sci Instrum. 2018 Jul;89(7):073704. doi: 10.1063/1.5027499.

Authors

Alex H Lumpkin¹, Alfred B Garson², Mark A Anastasio²

Affiliations

¹ Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Batavia, Illinois 60510, USA.
² Department of Biomedical Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri 63130, USA.

PMID: 30068149
DOI: 10.1063/1.5027499

Abstract

In this study, we report initial demonstrations of the use of single crystals in indirect x-ray imaging with a benchtop implementation of propagation-based x-ray phase-contrast imaging. Based on single Gaussian peak fits to the x-ray images, we observed a four times smaller system point-spread function (PSF) with the 50-µm thick single crystal scintillators than with the reference polycrystalline phosphor/scintillator. Fiber-optic plate depth-of-focus and Al reflective-coating aspects are also elucidated. Guided by the results from the 25-mm diameter crystal samples, we report additionally the first results with a unique 88-mm diameter single crystal bonded to a fiber optic plate and coupled to the large format CCD. Both PSF and x-ray phase-contrast imaging data are quantified and presented.