Experimental research on the feature of an X-ray Talbot-Lau interferometer vs. tube accelerating voltage

TL;DR

This study investigates how the X-ray Talbot-Lau interferometer's performance varies with tube accelerating voltage, finding it remains stable between 35KV and 45KV, supporting potential dual energy imaging applications.

Contribution

It provides experimental evidence that the interferometer's fringe visibility is insensitive to tube voltage changes within a specific range, enabling new imaging strategies.

Findings

Fringe visibility remains around 44% between 35KV and 45KV.

The interferometer's performance is stable across the tested voltage range.

Potential for dual energy phase-contrast X-ray imaging is demonstrated.

Abstract

X-ray Talbot-Lau interferometer has been used most widely to perform X-ray phase-contrast imaging with a conventional low-brilliance X-ray source, it yields high-sensitivity phase and dark-field images of sample producing low absorption contrast, thus bearing tremendous potential for future clinical diagnosis. In this manuscript, while changing accelerating voltage of the X-ray tube from 35KV to 45KV, X-ray phase-contrast imaging of a test sample were performed at each integer KV position to investigate the characteristic of an X-ray Talbot-Lau interferometer (located in the Institute of Multidisciplinary Research for Advanced Materials, Tohoku University, Japan) vs. tube voltage. Experimental results and data analysis show that this X-ray Talbot-Lau interferometer is insensitive to the tube accelerating voltage within a certain range, fringe visibility around 44% is maintained in the aforementioned tube voltage range. This experimental research implies that potential new dual energy phase-contrast X-ray imaging strategy and rough refraction spectrum measurement is feasible with this X-ray Talbot-Lau interferometer.