Effective modeling of high-energy laboratory-based x-ray phase contrast imaging utilizing absorption masks or gratings

摘要

Model refinements for the edge illumination x-ray phase contrast imaging method have been developed to improve simulation accuracy for high energy, polychromatic beams. High-energy x rays are desirable in imaging due to their penetrative power and, for biological samples, their lower dose deposition rate. Accurate models of such scenarios are required for designing appropriate imaging systems and to predict signal strength in complex settings such as clinical imaging or industrial quality assurance. When using optical components appropriate for high-energy x rays in a non-synchrotron setting, system performance was observed to deviate from that predicted by existing models. In this work, experimental data utilizing increasing thicknesses of a known filter material are used to illustrate the limitations of existing models and as validation for the new modeling features. Angular filtration of the cone beam was observed to be the most significant effect; however, specific features of the source and detector are also shown to affect system performance. We conclude by showing that a significantly improved agreement between experimental and simulated data is obtained with the refined model compared to previously existing ones.