Abstract
Various X-ray phase-contrast imaging techniques have been developed and applied over the last twenty years in different domains, such as material sciences, biology and medicine. However, no comprehensive inter-comparison exists in the literature. We present here a theoretical study that compares three among the most used techniques: propagation-based imaging (PBI), analyzer-based imaging (ABI) and grating interferometry (GI). These techniques are evaluated in terms of signal-to-noise ratio, figure of merit and spatial resolution. Both area and edge signals are considered. Dependences upon the object properties (absorption, phase shift) and the experimental acquisition parameters (energy, system point-spread function etc.) are derived and discussed. The results obtained from this analysis can be used as the reference for determining the most suitable technique for a given application.
Highlights
In conventional X-ray imaging, the contrast is generated by variations of the X-ray attenuation that arise from differences in the thickness, composition and density of the imaged object
Like in analyzer-based imaging (ABI), there exists in grating interferometry (GI) a considerable photon filtration due to the absorption in the two gratings
To make this comparison even more explicit, let us assume that the same object edge is imaged in two ABI and propagation-based imaging (PBI) setups that use the same detector, and that the spatial resolution is dominated by the detector
Summary
In conventional X-ray imaging, the contrast is generated by variations of the X-ray attenuation that arise from differences in the thickness, composition and density of the imaged object. We will focus on PBI, ABI and GI, the most largely presented techniques in the literature in the past years These methods differ for their experimental setup and requirements in terms of the X-ray beam spatial and temporal coherence, and for the nature and amplitude of the provided image signal, and for the amount of radiation dose that is delivered to the sample. These phase-contrast modalities (in particular PBI and ABI) have been extensively investigated in preclinical and clinical trials to access their potential for biomedical imaging, in subjects as diverse as mammography [13], cartilage imaging [14] and brain imaging [15]. This comes at the expenses of the available photon flux (and of the time required to acquire an image), since the source grating introduces a considerable filtration of the incoming radiation
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