Flexible Plenoptic X-ray Microscopy

Abstract

X-ray computed tomography (CT) is an invaluable technique for generating three-dimensional (3D) images of inert or living specimens. X-ray CT is used in many scientific, industrial, and societal fields. Compared to conventional 2D X-ray imaging, CT requires longer acquisition times because up to several thousand projections are required for reconstructing a single high-resolution 3D volume. Plenoptic imaging—an emerging technology in visible light field photography—highlights the potential of capturing quasi-3D information with a single exposure. Here, we show the first demonstration of a flexible plenoptic microscope operating with hard X-rays; it is used to computationally reconstruct images at different depths along the optical axis. The experimental results are consistent with the expected axial refocusing, precision, and spatial resolution. Thus, this proof-of-concept experiment opens the horizons to quasi-3D X-ray imaging, without sample rotation, with spatial resolution of a few hundred nanometres.

SOLARIS National Synchrotron Radiation Centre in Krakow, Poland

“…In the area of imaging and microscopy research, methodological developments related to the plenoptic X-ray imaging modality are planned. In X-ray plenoptic microscopy [44,45] a sample is illuminated by multiple beamlets from a polycapillary device at slightly different viewing angles. By means of numerical reconstruction, tomographic slices of the sample can be visualized from a single X-ray exposure.…”