Non-Destructive Testing of Archaeological Findings by Grating-Based X-Ray Phase-Contrast and Dark-Field Imaging

Ludwig, Veronika; Seifert, Maria; Niepold, Tracy; Pelzer, Georg; Rieger, Jens; Ziegler, Julia; Michel, Thilo; Anton, G.

doi:10.3390/jimaging4040058

Cited by 28 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…Veronika Ludwig from Gisela Anton's group (ecap) at Erlangen Friedrich Alexander University (FAU), on the other hand, presents the potential application of DIC and DPC to examine archeological findings comprising fabric and organic remnants [7]. This study is very valuable, first because it establishes an absolute scale of DIC for a whole array of fabrics and woven structures; and second because it addresses the optimization of the measurement protocol for performing DIC and DPC for different specimens.…”

Section: Data Methods and Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Phase-Contrast and Dark-Field Imaging

Zabler¹

2018

J. Imaging

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Very early, in 1896, Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, the founding father of X-rays, attempted to measure diffraction and refraction by this new kind of radiation, in vain. Only 70 years later, these effects were measured by Ulrich Bonse and Michael Hart who used them to make full-field images of biological specimen, coining the term phase-contrast imaging. Yet, another 30 years passed until the Talbot effect was rediscovered for X-radiation, giving rise to a micrograting based interferometer, replacing the Bonse–Hart interferometer, which relied on a set of four Laue-crystals for beam splitting and interference. By merging the Lau-interferometer with this Talbot-interferometer, another ten years later, measuring X-ray refraction and X-ray scattering full-field and in cm-sized objects (as Röntgen had attempted 110 years earlier) became feasible in every X-ray laboratory around the world. Today, now that another twelve years have passed and we are approaching the 125th jubilee of Röntgen’s discovery, neither Laue-crystals nor microgratings are a necessity for sensing refraction and scattering by X-rays. Cardboard, steel wool, and sandpaper are sufficient for extracting these contrasts from transmission images, using the latest image reconstruction algorithms. This advancement and the ever rising number of applications for phase-contrast and dark-field imaging prove to what degree our understanding of imaging physics as well as signal processing have advanced since the advent of X-ray physics, in particular during the past two decades. The discovery of the electron, as well as the development of electron imaging technology, has accompanied X-ray physics closely along its path, both modalities exploring the applications of new dark-field contrast mechanisms these days. Materials science, life science, archeology, non-destructive testing, and medicine are the key faculties which have already integrated these new imaging devices, using their contrast mechanisms in full. This special issue “Phase-Contrast and Dark-field Imaging” gives us a broad yet very to-the-point glimpse of research and development which are currently taking place in this very active field. We find reviews, applications reports, and methodological papers of very high quality from various groups, most of which operate X-ray scanners which comprise these new imaging modalities.

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Section: Data Methods and Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Phase-Contrast and Dark-Field Imaging

Zabler¹

2018

J. Imaging

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“…X-ray grating interferometry is a powerful method for non-destructive X-ray phase contrast imaging of weakly absorbing low atomic number materials which has a high impact in multiple fields, such as medical diagnostics, archeology, material science, etc. [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 ]. One of the prominent features of X-ray grating interferometric systems is that the essential optical components of the experimental setups are gratings with high aspect ratio (HAR) [ 5 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards the Fabrication of High-Aspect-Ratio Silicon Gratings by Deep Reactive Ion Etching

et al. 2020

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The key optical components of X-ray grating interferometry are gratings, whose profile requirements play the most critical role in acquiring high quality images. The difficulty of etching grating lines with high aspect ratios when the pitch is in the range of a few micrometers has greatly limited imaging applications based on X-ray grating interferometry. A high etching rate with low aspect ratio dependence is crucial for higher X-ray energy applications and good profile control by deep reactive ion etching of grating patterns. To achieve this goal, a modified Coburn–Winters model was applied in order to study the influence of key etching parameters, such as chamber pressure and etching power. The recipe for deep reactive ion etching was carefully fine-tuned based on the experimental results. Silicon gratings with an area of 70 × 70 mm2, pitch size of 1.2 and 2 μm were fabricated using the optimized process with aspect ratio α of ~67 and 77, respectively.

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“…Further, an additional dark field signal sensitive to small angle X-ray scattering was extracted from the interferometric data [3]. Many potential applications towards clinical imaging [4][5][6], nondestructive testing [7], security screening [8] and others have been reported.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quality and parameter control of X-ray absorption gratings by angular X-ray transmission

Gustschin

Meyer

et al. 2019

Opt. Express

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Here we report on a non-destructive, spatially resolving and easy to implement quality and parameter control method for high aspect ratio X-ray absorption gratings. Based on angular X-ray transmission measurements, our proposed technique allows to determine the duty cycle, the transmittance, the height, as well as the local inclination of the absorbing grating structures. A key advantage of the presented method is a fast and extensive grating quality evaluation without the need of implementing an entire grating interferometer. In addition to the local and surface-based analysis using a scanning electron microscope, our non-destructive method provides global averaged macroscopic and spatially resolved grating structure information without the requirement of resolving individual grating lines.

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Non-Destructive Testing of Archaeological Findings by Grating-Based X-Ray Phase-Contrast and Dark-Field Imaging

Cited by 28 publications

References 40 publications

Phase-Contrast and Dark-Field Imaging

Phase-Contrast and Dark-Field Imaging

Towards the Fabrication of High-Aspect-Ratio Silicon Gratings by Deep Reactive Ion Etching

Quality and parameter control of X-ray absorption gratings by angular X-ray transmission

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