Inner product regularized multi-energy X-ray tomography for material decomposition

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new regularization technique for multi-energy X-ray tomography that improves material decomposition by penalizing overlaps, enabling better differentiation of materials like selenium in complex samples.

Contribution

A novel inner product regularization term is proposed for multi-energy X-ray tomography, enhancing material separation capabilities over traditional methods.

Findings

Successfully mapped selenium in different oxidation states.

Improved material differentiation in real data experiments.

Potential applications across multiple scientific fields.

Abstract

Multi-energy X-ray tomography is studied for decomposing three materials using three X-ray energies and a classical energy-integrating detector. A novel regularization term comprises inner products between the material distribution functions, penalizing any overlap of different materials. The method is tested on real data measured of a phantom embedded with Na$_2$SeO$_3$, Na$_2$SeO$_4$, and elemental selenium. It is found that the two-dimensional distributions of selenium in different oxidation states can be mapped and distinguished from each other with the new algorithm. The results have applications in material science, chemistry, biology and medicine.