English

Single-Pixel Imaging with Neutrons

Instrumentation and Detectors 2020-01-10 v1 Image and Video Processing Quantum Physics

Abstract

Neutron imaging is an invaluable noninvasive technique for exploring new science and assisting industrial manufacture. However, state-of-the-art neutron facilities are extremely expensive and inconvenient to access, while the flux of portable neutron sources is not strong enough to form even a static image within an acceptable time frame. It is hard to obtain images with both high spatial resolution and energy resolution together. Here, based on classical amplitude modulation, we demonstrate single-pixel imaging with neutrons with specially designed masks and, further, obtain energy-selective images with a spallation neutron source. Images of real complex objects with 100 {\mu}m spatial resolution and 10 {\mu}s time resolution (corresponding to 0.4% at 1 {\AA}) have been obtained using a 3He single-pixel detector. Even when the neutron counts in the detector plane were lowered to 1000 per modulation pattern on average, a clear image was still obtained. The experimental setup is simple, inexpensive and easy to operate, thus our scheme points to a new path for neutron imaging, especially for portable radioactive neutron sources of low intensity, which should be of great benefit for diagnostic analysis in biology, materials science, and industrial processes.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2001.03069,
  title  = {Single-Pixel Imaging with Neutrons},
  author = {Yu-Hang He and Yi-Yi Huang and Zhi-Rong Zeng and Yi-Fei Li and Jun-Hao Tan and Li-Ming Chen and Ling-An Wu and Ming-Fei Li and Bao-Gang Quan and Song-Lin Wang and Tian-Jiao Liang},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2001.03069},
  year   = {2020}
}
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