Capillarity and Wetting Phenomena: Drops, Bubbles, Pearls, Waves

http://research.engr.oregonstate.edu/immiscibles/sites/research.engr.oregonstate.edu.immiscibles/files/Papers/Wildenschild_Sheppard_AWR_2012.pdf

X-ray imaging and analysis techniques for quantifying pore-scale structure and processes in subsurface porous medium systems

Phase-contrast x-ray imaging (PCI) is an innovative method that is sensitive to the refraction of the x-rays in matter. PCI is particularly adapted to visualize weakly absorbing details like those often encountered in biology and medicine. In past years, PCI has become one of the most used imaging methods in laboratory and preclinical studies: its unique characteristics allow high contrast 3D visualization of thick and complex samples even at high spatial resolution. Applications have covered a wide range of pathologies and organs, and are more and more often performed in vivo. Several techniques are now available to exploit and visualize the phase-contrast: propagation- and analyzer-based, crystal and grating interferometry and non-interferometric methods like the coded aperture. In this review, covering the last five years, we will give an overview of the main theoretical and experimental developments and of the important steps performed towards the clinical implementation of PCI.

http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0031-9155/58/1/R1/pdf

X-ray phase-contrast imaging: from pre-clinical applications towards clinics

This self-contained, comprehensive book describes the fundamental properties of soft x-rays and extreme ultraviolet (EUV) radiation and discusses their applications in a wide variety of fields, including EUV lithography for semiconductor chip manufacture and soft x-ray biomicroscopy. The author begins by presenting the relevant basic principles such as radiation and scattering, wave propagation, diffraction, and coherence. He then goes on to examine a broad range of phenomena and applications. The topics covered include EUV lithography, biomicroscopy, spectromicroscopy, EUV astronomy, synchrotron radiation, and soft x-ray lasers. He also provides a great deal of useful reference material such as electron binding energies, characteristic emission lines and photo-absorption cross-sections. The book will be of great interest to graduate students and researchers in engineering, physics, chemistry, and the life sciences. It will also appeal to practicing engineers involved in semiconductor fabrication and materials science.

X-Rays and Extreme Ultraviolet Radiation: Principles and Applications

Analysis of tomographic datasets at synchrotron light sources (including X-ray transmission tomography, X-ray fluorescence microscopy and X-ray diffraction tomography) is becoming progressively more challenging due to the increasing data acquisition rates that new technologies in X-ray sources and detectors enable. The next generation of synchrotron facilities that are currently under design or construction throughout the world will provide diffraction-limited X-ray sources and are expected to boost the current data rates by several orders of magnitude, stressing the need for the development and integration of efficient analysis tools. Here an attempt to provide a collaborative framework for the analysis of synchrotron tomographic data that has the potential to unify the effort of different facilities and beamlines performing similar tasks is described in detail. The proposed Python-based framework is open-source, platform- and data-format-independent, has multiprocessing capability and supports procedural programming that many researchers prefer. This collaborative platform could affect all major synchrotron facilities where new effort is now dedicated to developing new tools that can be deployed at the facility for real-time processing, as well as distributed to users for off-site data processing.

/pdf/tomopy-a-framework-for-the-analysis-of-synchrotron-4bohujt2c5.pdf

TomoPy: a framework for the analysis of synchrotron tomographic data

In-line phase-contrast X-ray imaging provides images where both absorption and refraction contribute. For quantitative analysis of these images, the phase needs to be retrieved numerically. There are many phase-retrieval methods available. Those suitable for phase-contrast tomography, i.e., non-iterative phase-retrieval methods that use only one image at each projection angle, all follow the same pattern though derived in different ways. We outline this pattern and use it to compare the methods to each other, considering only phase-retrieval performance and not the additional effects of tomographic reconstruction. We also outline derivations, approximations and assumptions, and show which methods are similar or identical and how they relate to each other. A simple scheme for choosing reconstruction method is presented, and numerical phase-retrieval performed for all methods.

http://www.fis.unical.it/files/fl161/2267PhaseretrievalinXrayphasecontrast.pdf

Phase retrieval in X-ray phase-contrast imaging suitable for tomography

We report on the observation and application of near-field speckles with a laboratory x-ray source. The detection of speckles is possible thanks to the enhanced brilliance properties of the used liquid-metal-jet source, and opens the way to a range of new applications in laboratory-based coherent x-ray imaging. Here, we use the speckle pattern for multimodal imaging of demonstrator objects. Moreover, we introduce algorithms for phase and dark-field imaging using speckle tracking, and we show that they yield superior results with respect to existing methods.

Speckle-based x-ray phase-contrast and dark-field imaging with a laboratory source.

We present a high-brightness 24-keV electron-impact microfocus x-ray source based on continuous operation of a heated liquid-indium/gallium-jet anode. The 30–70 W electron beam is magnetically focused onto the jet, producing a circular 7–13 μm full width half maximum x-ray spot. The measured spectral brightness at the 24.2 keV In Kα line is 3 × 109 photons/(s × mm2 × mrad2 × 0.1% BW) at 30 W electron-beam power. The high photon energy compared to existing liquid-metal-jet sources increases the penetration depth and allows imaging of thicker samples. The applicability of the source in the biomedical field is demonstrated by high-resolution imaging of a mammography phantom and a phase-contrast angiography phantom.

A 24 keV liquid-metal-jet x-ray source for biomedical applications

We demonstrate a laboratory method for imaging small blood vessels using x-ray propagation-based phase-contrast imaging and carbon dioxide (CO2) gas as a contrast agent. The limited radiation dose ...

http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0031-9155/57/9/2603/pdf

X-ray phase contrast for CO2 microangiography

Imaging of muscular structure with cellular or subcellular detail in whole-body animal models is of key importance for understanding muscular disease and assessing interventions. Classical histological methods for high-resolution imaging methods require excision, fixation and staining. Here we show that the three-dimensional muscular structure of unstained whole zebrafish can be imaged with sub-5 μm detail with X-ray phase-contrast tomography. Our method relies on a laboratory propagation-based phase-contrast system tailored for detection of low-contrast 4–6 μm subcellular myofibrils. The method is demonstrated on 20 days post fertilization zebrafish larvae and comparative histology confirms that we resolve individual myofibrils in the whole-body animal. X-ray imaging of healthy zebrafish show the expected structured muscle pattern while specimen with a dystrophin deficiency (sapje) displays an unstructured pattern, typical of Duchenne muscular dystrophy. The method opens up for whole-body imaging with sub-cellular detail also of other types of soft tissue and in different animal models.

/pdf/x-ray-phase-contrast-tomography-for-high-spatial-resolution-3lowvv2of6.pdf

Daniel H. Larsson

Papers

Phase retrieval in X-ray phase-contrast imaging suitable for tomography

Speckle-based x-ray phase-contrast and dark-field imaging with a laboratory source.

A 24 keV liquid-metal-jet x-ray source for biomedical applications

X-ray phase contrast for CO2 microangiography

X-ray phase-contrast tomography for high-spatial-resolution zebrafish muscle imaging.