New laboratory 3D X-ray microscopy with EIGER2 detector

A 15-minute read

A novel setup for multibeam 3D X-ray microscopy in a lab relies on polycapillary optics and EIGER2 R 500k detector to enable easier and faster measurements, and higher quality data. This application note includes  examples of high-resolution experimental geometry, plenoptic X-ray microscopy and X-ray microtomography.

Due to their ability to penetrate deeply into matter, short wavelength X-rays provide a unique means to visualize internal structures of objects with a high spatial resolution. Recently, submicron spatial resolution was achieved in a novel 3D imaging setup, developed by the X-ray optics laboratory (optiXlab) at Jagiellonian University in Kraków. This new lab instrument for high-resolution 3D imaging relies on polycapillary optics [1] and a photon-counting hybrid pixel detector to generate and detect up to 1000 X-ray beams that simultaneously illuminate a sample from slightly different directions. The use of this multiple X-ray beam setup has several advantages over the classical approaches:

1. Improved signal-to-noise ratio of the collected data at shortened exposure times.
2. Possibility to obtain a depth resolved image of an object inside the focal spot of polycapillary optics from a single exposure. That is, tomographic slices at various depths near the focal plane can be reconstructed in a way similar to tomo-synthesis but from a single X-ray exposure.
3. High-resolution micro-tomographic scans can be performed without sample translations, truncations of the field of view, or limitations of the angular range.

Read the full application note, written by Dr. Pawel Korecki at Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland.