Preliminary study of coded-source-based neutron imaging at the CPHS

Abstract

Abstract A cold neutron radiography/tomography instrument is under construction at the Compact Pulsed Hadron Source (CPHS) at Tsinghua University, China. The neutron flux is so low that an acceptable neutron radiographic image requires a long exposure time in the single-hole imaging mode. The coded-source-based imaging technique is helpful to increase the utilization of neutron flux to reduce the exposure time without loss in spatial resolution and provides high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) images. Here we report a preliminary study on the feasibility of coded-source-based technique applied to the cold neutron imaging with a low-brilliance neutron source at the CPHS. A proper coded aperture is designed to be used in the beamline instead of the single-hole aperture. Two image retrieval algorithms, the Wiener filter algorithm and the Richardson–Lucy algorithm, are evaluated by using analytical and Monte Carlo simulations. The simulation results reveal that the coded source imaging technique is suitable for the CPHS to partially solve the problem of low neutron flux.