Quick X-ray microtomography using a laser-driven betatron source

• Main Authors: Döpp, A, Hehn, L, Goetzfried, J, Wenz, J, Gilljohann, M, Ding, H, Schindler, S, Pfeiffer, F, Karsch, S
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 23-12-2017
• Subjects: Physics - Medical Physics; Physics - Optics
• DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.1712.08761

Optica, Vol. 5, No. 1 (2018) Laser-driven X-ray sources are an emerging alternative to conventional X-ray
tubes and synchrotron sources. We present results on microtomographic X-ray
imaging of a cancellous human bone sample using synchrotron-like betatron
radiation. The source is driven by a 100-TW-class titanium-sapphire laser
system and delivers over $10^8$ X-ray photons per second. Compared to earlier
studies, the acquisition time for an entire tomographic dataset has been
reduced by more than an order of magnitude. Additionally, the reconstruction
quality benefits from the use of statistical iterative reconstruction
techniques. Depending on the desired resolution, tomographies are thereby
acquired within minutes, which is an important milestone towards real-life
applications of laser-plasma X-ray sources.