Two-directional beam-tracking (2DBT) is a method for phase-contrast imaging and tomography that uses an intensity modulator to structure the X-ray beam into an array of independent circular beamlets that are resolved by a high-resolution detector. It features isotropic spatial resolution, provides two-dimensional phase sensitivity, and enables the three-dimensional reconstructions of the refractive index decrement, δ, and the attenuation coefficient, μ. In this work, we report on the angular sensitivity and the spatial resolution of 2DBT images in a synchrotron-based implementation. In its best configuration, we obtained angular sensitivities of ∼20 nrad and spatial resolution of at least 6.25 μm in phase-contrast images. We also demonstrate exemplar application to the three-dimensional imaging of soft tissue samples, including a mouse liver and a decellularised porcine dermis.
@article{arxiv.2312.09992,
title = {High angular sensitivity X-ray phase-contrast microtomography of soft-tissue through a two-directional beam-tracking synchrotron set-up},
author = {Carlos Navarrete-Leon and P. Stephen Patrick and Adam Doherty and Harry Allan and Silvia Cipiccia and Shashidhara Marathe and Kaz Wanelik and Michela Esposito and Charlotte K. Hagen and Alessandro Olivo and Marco Endrizzi},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2312.09992},
year = {2023}
}