New Directions in X-ray Tomography

摘要

Complex materials such as composites or aggregates often contain weakly absorbing constituents and have to be analysed at different length-scales to be fully understood. This makes them challenging objects for classical X-ray tomography. Examples include porous media such as wood, concrete or foams, coatings of medical implants or fibre reinforced polymers., The latter are becoming a major material in light-weight structural design, e.g. for aeronautics or automotive industries. The Center for X-ray Analytics at Empa was created to combine all major analytical X-ray technologies in one common platform and to facilitate the development of new instruments and methods exploiting numerous physical interaction mechanisms to address current and future challenges. At the center, not only absorption CT from the nano- to the meter-scale, but also phase-contrast CT, dark-field X-ray imaging, small- and wide-angle scattering and high-resolution X-ray diffraction is offered. This expertise of wide-ranging contrast-mechanisms is combined with developments in data-processing and image analysis as well as instrument improvements through the application of novel detector and source concepts, image reconstruction and artefact correction algorithms.