Abstract
X-ray tomographic microscopy is a well-established analysis technique in different fields of the Earth Sciences to access volumetric information of the internal microstructure of a large variety of opaque materials with high-spatial resolution and in a non-destructive manner. Synchrotron radiation, with its coherence and high flux, is required for pushing the temporal resolution into the second and sub-second regime and beyond, and therefore moving from the investigation of static samples to the study of fast dynamic processes as they happen in 3D. Over the past few years, several hardware and software developments at the TOMCAT beamline at the Swiss Light Source contributed to establishing its highly flexible and user-friendly fast tomography endstation, making a large variety of new dynamic in situ and operando investigations possible. Here we present an overview of the different devices, including an in-house developed detector, a new highly efficient macroscope and a programmable fast rotation stage. Their tight interplay and synchronization are key for lifting experimental design compromises and follow dynamic processes with high spatial and temporal resolution unfolding over prolonged periods of time, as often required by many applications. We showcase these new capabilities for the Earth Sciences community by presenting three different geological studies, which make use of different sample environments. With a tri-axial deformation rig, chemo-mechanical-hydraulic feedbacks between gypsum dehydration and halite deformation have been studied, while the spatio-temporal evolution of a solute plume has been investigated for the first time in 3D with a flow cell. A laser-based heating system available at the beamline provides access to the high temperatures required to address bubble growth and collapse as well as bubble-bubble interaction and coalescence in volcanological material. With the integration of a rheometer, information on bubble deformation could also be gained. In the near future, upgrades of most large-scale synchrotron radiation facilities to diffraction-limited storage rings will create new opportunities, for instance through sub-second tomographic imaging capabilities at sub-micron length scales.
Highlights
X-ray tomographic microscopy (XTM) provides access to volumetric information of the internal microstructure of a large variety of opaque materials with high-spatial resolution and in a non-destructive manner
To avoid the collection of a large amount of useless data as well as putting the streaming and storage infrastructure under unnecessary load, it is of utmost importance to match the data acquisition to the dynamics of the studied process
At TOMCAT we have developed a fast and user-friendly tomographic reconstruction pipeline delivering full tomographic volumes just a few seconds to minutes after data acquisition completion (Marone et al, 2017)
Summary
X-ray tomographic microscopy (XTM) provides access to volumetric information of the internal microstructure of a large variety of opaque materials with high-spatial resolution and in a non-destructive manner. To avoid the collection of a large amount of useless data as well as putting the streaming and storage infrastructure under unnecessary load, it is of utmost importance to match the data acquisition to the dynamics of the studied process This new tool leads to information maximization in the acquired data, but opens up new options for an active experimental control, e.g., stabilizing a temperature ramp as soon as a magma starts vesiculating, or adjusting the tensile or compressive force when a particular microstructure starts to develop, further enhancing the flexibility of the endstation and helping in the realization of complex time-resolved tomographic studies. The 2D images from three consecutive time steps at the same slice position (Figure 9, top right) clearly show the motion and deformation of the bubbles (with minimal motion blur), and the quantitative DVC analysis for the same time points (Figure 9, bottom) shows the 3-dimensional distribution and heterogeneity of the displacement vector field
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