X-ray Compton line scan tomography*

Abstract

The potentials of incoherent X-ray scattering (Compton) computed tomography (CT) are investigated. The imaging of materials of very different atomic number or density at once is generally a perpetual challenge for X-ray tomography or radiography. In a basic laboratory set-up for simultaneous perpendicular Compton scattering and direct beam attenuation tomography are conducted by single channel photon counting line scans. This results in asymmetric distortions of the projection profiles of the scattering CT data set. In a first approach, corrections of Compton scattering data by taking advantage of rotational symmetry yield tomograms without major geometric artefacts. A cylindrical sample composed of PE, PA, PVC, glass and wood demonstrates similar Compton contrast for all the substances, while the conventional absorption tomogram only reveals the two high order materials. Comparison to neutron tomography reveals astonishing similarities except for the glass component (without hydrogen). Therefore, Compton CT offers the potential to replace neutron tomography, which requires much more efforts.

Mapping of lithium ion concentrations in 3D structures through development of in situ correlative imaging of X-ray Compton scattering-computed tomography

“…Early works on X-ray Compton computed tomography (CT) (Gorshkov, 2001;Gorshkov et al, 2010;Kupsch et al, 2015) require reconstruction techniques, for example, filtered back projection or equivalent techniques, to generate a Compton CT slice. In our study, full-field X-ray Compton scattering (XCS) imaging is realized through direct imaging of the sample by collecting the Compton scattering signals perpendicular to the sample along the plane of the incident X-ray beam.…”