Three-dimensional Spatial Resolution Research Articles

Study of Neutron-, Proton-, and Gamma-Irradiated Silicon Detectors Using the Two-Photon Absorption-Transient Current Technique.

The Two-Photon Absorption-Transient Current Technique (TPA-TCT) is a device characterisation technique that enables three-dimensional spatial resolution. Laser light in the quadratic absorption regime is employed to generate excess charge carriers only in a small volume around the focal spot. The drift of the excess charge carriers is studied to obtain information about the device under test. Neutron-, proton-, and gamma-irradiated p-type pad silicon detectors up to equivalent fluences of about 7 × 1015 neq/cm2 and a dose of 186 Mrad are investigated to study irradiation-induced effects on the TPA-TCT. Neutron and proton irradiation lead to additional linear absorption, which does not occur in gamma-irradiated detectors. The additional absorption is related to cluster damage, and the absorption scales according to the non-ionising energy loss. The influence of irradiation on the two-photon absorption coefficient is investigated, as well as potential laser beam depletion by the irradiation-induced linear absorption. Further, the electric field in neutron- and proton-irradiated pad detectors at an equivalent fluence of about 7 × 1015 neq/cm2 is investigated, where the space charge of the proton-irradiated devices appears inverted compared to the neutron-irradiated device.

Nuclear emulsion film production system for experiments in full-area scanning and analysis era

Research utilizing the sub-micron three-dimensional spatial resolution of nuclear emulsion detectors has been expanding in various fields, triggered by the development of automated emulsion scanning technology. This paper describes a new production system capable of supplying several thousand square meters of nuclear emulsion film per year. The development and introduction of improved emulsion gel, knife coating, and drying equipment have enabled the mass production of double-side coated nuclear emulsion films with thick emulsion layers suitable for full-area scanning and analysis. This system has played an essential role in numerous nuclear emulsion experiments.

Nanoscale Analysis of Frozen Water by Atom Probe Tomography Using Graphene Encapsulation and Cryo-Workflows.

There has been an increasing interest in atom probe tomography (APT) to characterize hydrated and biological materials. A major benefit of APT compared to microscopy techniques more commonly used in biology is its combination of outstanding three-dimensional (3D) spatial resolution and mass sensitivity. APT has already been successfully used to characterize biominerals, revealing key structural information at the atomic scale, however there are many challenges inherent to the analysis of soft hydrated materials. New preparation protocols, often involving specimen preparation and transfer at cryogenic temperature, enable APT analysis of hydrated materials and have the potential to enable 3D atomic scale characterization of biological materials in the near-native hydrated state. In this study, samples of pure water at the tips of tungsten needle specimens were prepared at room temperature by graphene encapsulation. A comparative study was conducted where specimens were transferred at either room temperature or cryo-temperature and analyzed by APT by varying the flight path and pulsing mode. The differences between the analysis workflows are presented along with recommendations for future studies, and the compatibility between graphene coating and cryogenic workflows is demonstrated.

In Situ Electrochemical Atomic Force Microscopy: From Interfaces to Interphases.

The electrochemical interface formed between an electrode and an electrolyte significantly affects the rate and mechanism of the electrode reaction through its structure and properties, which vary across the interface. The scope of the interface has been expanded, along with the development of energy electrochemistry, where a solid-electrolyte interphase may form on the electrode and the active materials change properties near the surface region. Developing a comprehensive understanding of electrochemical interfaces and interphases necessitates three-dimensional spatial resolution characterization. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) offers advantages of imaging and long-range force measurements. Here we assess the capabilities of AFM by comparing the force curves of different regimes and various imaging modes for in situ characterizing of electrochemical interfaces and interphases. Selected examples of progress on work related to the structures and processes of electrode surfaces, electrical double layers, and lithium battery systems are subsequently illustrated. Finally, this review provides perspectives on the future development of electrochemical AFM.

Integration of cellular-resolution optical coherence tomography and Raman spectroscopy for discrimination of skin cancer cells with machine learning.

An integrated cellular-resolution optical coherence tomography (OCT) module with near-infrared Raman spectroscopy was developed on the discrimination of various skin cancer cells and normal cells. Micron-level three-dimensional (3D) spatial resolution and the spectroscopic capability on chemical component determination can be obtained simultaneously. We experimentally verified the effectiveness of morphology, intensity, and spectroscopy features for discriminating skin cells. Both spatial and spectroscopic features were employed for the discrimination of five types of skin cells, including keratinocytes (HaCaT), the cell line of squamous cell carcinoma (A431), the cell line of basal cell carcinoma (BCC-1/KMC), primary melanocytes, and the cell line of melanoma (A375). The cell volume, compactness, surface roughness, average intensity, and internal intensity standard deviation were extracted from the 3D OCT images. After removing the fluorescence components from the acquired Raman spectra, the entire spectra (600 to ) were used. An accuracy of 85% in classifying five types of skin cells was achieved. The cellular-resolution OCT images effectively differentiate cancer and normal cells, whereas Raman spectroscopy can distinguish the cancer cells with nearly 100% accuracy. Among the OCT image features, cell surface roughness, internal average intensity, and standard deviation of internal intensity distribution effectively differentiate the cancerous and normal cells. The three features also worked well in sorting the keratinocyte and melanocyte. Using the full Raman spectra, the melanoma and keratinocyte-based cell carcinoma cancer cells can be discriminated effectively.

Magnetic Resonance Velocimetry for porous media: sources and reduction of measurement errors for improved accuracy

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) is a powerful tool for noninvasively investigating static and dynamic properties of fluids inside complex and opaque structures. Thus, Magnetic Resonance Velocimetry (MRV) allows for the in situ analysis of the local flow velocity of fluids. Such an analysis characterises mass transport properties and helps to validate or improve numerical predictions for porous media. The benefit of such validations is lowered by several problems worsening the measurement accuracy. This publication addresses systematic errors and the influence of noise, which may reduce the accuracy of MRV measurements. Techniques are described to minimise or correct displacement and phase errors. A new multi-echo MRV-sequence is proposed as a compromise between Velocity-to-Noise Ratio (VNR), total measurement time, spatial resolution and displacement errors. For improved VNR, a dual-VENC encoding scheme was used and repetition time T_{text{R}} was optimised. As an example, the proposed MRV sequence was used to measure the three-directional flow velocity of water in an Open Cell Foam (OCF) with 10 pores per inch with three-dimensional isotropic spatial resolution.

Monte Carlo study of a 3D CZT spectroscopic-imager for scattering polarimetry

The measurement of the polarisation of the high-energy emission from cosmic sources has now become a key observational parameter for understanding the production mechanisms and the geometry of the regions involved. Therefore, a mandatory requirement for new instrumentation in this energy range will be to provide high sensitivity for polarimetric measurements. For several years our group has studied the performance of CdTe/CZT pixel spectrometers as scattering polarimeters, however in order to achieve the sensitivities required by the next generation of instrumentation in the 100 keV to MeV band, a promising solution is now offered by the development of spectrometers capable of three-dimensional spatial resolution (i.e. 3D spectroscopic imager) to be used as the focal plane of new high energy focusing optics. In the framework of the study of a new spaceborne telescope based on a broad-band Laue lens (AHEAD 2020), we report on the results of a Monte Carlo study devoted to optimise the configuration of a 3D CZT detector for scattering polarimetry, i.e. to optimise its modulation factor (Q). In particular, we present results on the dependence of Q on the detector geometrical configurations (thickness and pixel/voxel scales), and from various event filters that can be implemented.

High-precision large-area muon tracking and triggering with drift-tube chambers at future colliders

Experiments like the ATLAS detector at the HL-LHC or detectors at future hadron colliders need muon detectors with excellent momentum resolution at the percent level up to the TeV scale both at the trigger and the offline reconstruction level. This requires muon tracking chambers with high spatial resolution even at the highest background fluxes. Drift-tube chambers are the most cost effective technology for the instrumentation of large-area muon systems providing the required high rate capability and three-dimensional spatial resolution. Thanks to the advances in analog and digital electronics, modern drift-tube chambers can be used in stand-alone mode up to the highest background rates providing event times and second coordinates without the necessity of additional trigger chambers. New key developments in the integrated front-end electronics are fast baseline restoration of the shaped signal and picosecond time-to-digital converters for second coordinate measurement with double-sided read-out of the tubes. Self-triggered operation has become possible using modern high-performance FPGAs allowing for real-time pattern recognition and track reconstruction.

Enhanced axial resolution of lattice light sheet microscopy by fluorescence differential detection.

Lattice light-sheet microscopy (LLSM) is promising in long-term biological volumetric imaging due to its high spatiotemporal resolution and low phototoxicity. However, three-dimensional (3D) isotropic spatial resolution remains an unmet goal in LLSM because of its poorer axial resolution. Combing LLSM with fluorescence differential detection, namely LLSDM, has been proposed to improve the axial resolution of LLSM in simulation. It demonstrates the possibility of further enhancing the axial resolution in 3D volumetric imaging with LLSM by specifically discarding the off-focus photons captured using a complementary optical lattice (OL) profile generated with additional 0-π phase modulation at the objective pupil plane. The direct generation of the complementary lattice profile using the binary phase modulator conjugated to the sample plane for amplitude modulation, as used in LLSM, is also permittable. Nevertheless, the previously proposed configuration fails to provide a symmetric complementary lattice pattern along the axial axis, thus leading to the imbalanced off-focus photon suppression in the reconstructed images after subtraction [Opt. Lett.45, 2854 (2020)10.1364/OL.393378]. Here, we modified the LLSDM theory which can produce an ideal complementary lattice pattern with central zero intensity and symmetrically distributed sidelobes. We also analyzed the impact of numerical aperture matching between the original and complementary lattice patterns and presented the consistency between the simulated and experimental results. As demonstrated by imaging the distribution of fluorescent beads and microtubules in fixed U2OS cells, as well as the dynamics of filopodia in live U2OS cells, LLSDM provides about 1.5 times improvement in axial resolution, and higher imaging contrast compared with traditional LLSM.

3D spatial resolution characterization for volumetric computed tomography

Spatial resolution is a key parameter that determines the smallest resolved scale in volumetric computed tomography. However, the evaluation process is typically confined within a plane, and tomographic resolution is usually treated as a two dimensional concept. In this work, the full map of three-dimensional (3D) spatial resolution along radial directions was obtained through combined volumetric laser induced fluorescence measurement on a well-controlled test rig, tomographic reconstruction, and successive resolution analysis. The results show non-uniformly distributed spatial resolution and weak dependence on view angles. Moreover, both experimental and algorithmic factors on spatial resolution were quantitatively quantified. The convergence of the spatial resolution was then validated through a series of computation with increasing voxel numbers. It is found that the spatial resolution improves until the number of voxels reaches ∼19.6 times as much the value set by the linear algebraic limit. The ultimate spatial resolution that can be obtained with our setup is about 1.35 lp/mm, which is twice the value of a well-posed system. The results show that the method of this work is more appropriate to quantify spatial resolution in 3D space. The conclusions made in this work can be generalized for applications with other tomography-based measurements.

Distribution of symptomatic cerebral vasospasm following subarachnoid hemorrhage assessed using cone-beam CT angiography

Background and purposeCone-beam CT angiography (CB-CTA) provides a three-dimensional spatial resolution which is, so far, unmatched in clinical practice compared with other conventional techniques such as two-dimensional digital subtracted angiography....

Cone beam computed tomography with oral contrast for accurate diagnosis and surgical planning of pharyngeal leakage and fistula: a case series

ObjectivePharyngocutaneous fistula is one of the severe complications related to head and neck surgeries. Detecting the accurate three-dimensional location of both the fistula and leakage is essential for surgical treatment. Videofluoroscopy is usually used for locating these; however, its imaging is two-dimensional. We evaluated pharyngeal leakage and fistulae using Cone Beam Computed Tomography (CBCT), known for its three-dimensional high spatial resolution imaging, taken in a sitting position, with oral contrast (contrast CBCT). MethodsPharyngeal leakage and fistulae were evaluated in a total of 31 subjects by sequentially performing videofluoroscopy and contrast CBCT. The detection accuracy of videofluoroscopy and contrast CBCT for leakage and fistula, as well as the ability to determine the extent and depth for surgical planning, were investigated and compared. ResultsVideofluoroscopy and contrast CBCT showed suspicious leakage and/or fistula in six and three of the 31 subjects, respectively. Surgical findings revealed the presence of leakage and/or fistula in three of the 31 subjects. The positive predictive values of videofluoroscopy and contrast CBCT were 50% (3/6) and 100% (3/3), respectively. Contrast CBCT provided more precise images, showing the extent and depth of leakage and fistula in three-dimensions. ConclusionThe present study’s results indicate the usefulness of contrast CBCT in terms of accurate diagnosis of leakage and fistula, due to its three-dimensional imaging being performed with the patient in a sitting position. Level of evidence4.

Using saturated absorption for superresolution laser scanning transmission microscopy.

We improved the three-dimensional spatial resolution of laser scanning transmission microscopy by exploiting the saturated absorption of dye molecules. The saturated absorption is induced by the high-intensity light irradiation and localises the signal within the centre of the focal spot. Our numerical calculation indicates that the spatial resolution in transmission imaging is significantly improved for both lateral and axial directions using nonlinear transmitted signals induced by saturated absorption. We experimentally demonstrated the improvement of the three-dimensional resolution by observing fine structures of stained rat kidney tissues, which were not able to be visualised by conventional laser scanning transmission microscopy.

Theory, method, and test tools for determination of 3D MTF characteristics in cone-beam CT.

The modulation transfer function (MTF) is widely used as an objective metric of spatial resolution of medical imaging systems. Despite advances in capability for three-dimensional (3D) isotropic spatial resolution in computed tomography (CT) and cone-beam CT (CBCT), MTF evaluation for such systems is typically reported only in the axial plane, and practical methodology for assessment of fully 3D spatial resolution characteristics is lacking. This work reviews fundamental theoretical relationships of two-dimensional (2D) and 3D spread functions and reports practical methods and test tools for analysis of 3D MTF in CBCT. Fundamental aspects of 2D and 3D MTF measurement are reviewed within a common notational framework, and three MTF test tools with analysis code are reported and made available online (https://istar.jhu.edu/downloads/): (a) a multi-wire tool for measurement of the axial plane MTF [denoted as , where is the measurement angle out of the axial plane] as a function of position in the axial plane; (b) a wedge tool for measurement of the MTF in any direction in the 3D Fourier domain [e.g., =45°, denoted as ]; and (c) a sphere tool for measurement of the MTF in any or all directions in the 3D Fourier domain. Experiments were performed on a mobile C-arm with CBCT capability, showing that yields an informative one-dimensional (1D) representation of the overall 3D spatial resolution characteristics, capturing important characteristics of the 3D MTF that might be missed in conventional analysis. The effects of anisotropic filters and detector readout mode were investigated, and the extent to which a system can be said to provide "isotropic" resolution was evaluated by quantitative comparison of MTF at various . All three test tools provided consistent measurement of , and the wedge and sphere tools demonstrated how measurement of the MTF in directions outside the axial plane ( ) can reveal spatial resolution characteristics to which conventional axial MTF measurement is blind. The wedge tool was shown to reduce statistical measurement error compared to the sphere tool due to improved sampling, and the sphere tool was shown to provide a basis for measurement of the MTF in any or all directions (outside the null cone) from a single scan. The C-arm system exhibited non-isotropic spatial resolution with conventional non-isotropic 1D apodization filters (i.e., frequency cutoff filters) - which is common in CBCT - and implementation of isotropic 2D apodization yielded quantifiably isotropic MTF. Asymmetric pixel binning modes were similarly shown to impart non-isotropic effects on the 3D MTF, and the overall 3D MTF characteristics were evident in each case with a single, 1D measurement of the 1D ). Three test tools and corresponding MTF analysis methods were presented within a consistent framework for analysis of 3D spatial resolution characteristics in a manner amenable to routine, practical measurements. Experiments on a CBCT C-arm validated many intuitive aspects of 3D spatial resolution and quantified the extent to which a CBCT system may be considered to have isotropic resolution. Measurement of ) provided a practical 1D measure of the underlying 3D MTF characteristics and is extensible to other CT or CBCT systems offering high, isotropic spatial resolution.

Three-dimensional density distributions of NO in the effluent of the COST reference microplasma jet operated in He/N2/O2

Laser induced fluorescence spectroscopy (LIF) is used to measure absolute ground state densities of nitric oxide (NO) in the effluent of the COST reference microplasma jet (COST-jet) with three-dimensional spatial resolution. The jet is operated in helium with a nitrogen/oxygen admixture. The experiments are performed with the jet expanding into open air and into a controlled He/synthetic air atmosphere. The most efficient production of NO is found at a 0.5% admixture of N2/O2 at a ratio of 4/1, that is considered to be synthetic air. Maximum NO densities of 3.25 × 1014 cm−3 and 4.5 × 1014 cm−3 are measured in the air and He/synthetic air atmosphere, respectively, at an axial distance of 2 mm from the nozzle. The distribution patterns are found to transit into a turbulent regime for air atmosphere at greater axial distances, while in the He/synthetic air atmosphere this effect is not observed. It is found that the expansion of the region of high NO density in the effluent is strongly coupled to the helium flow. Furthermore, the NO density is found to depend on the absolute feed gas flow, i.e. its maximum decreases as a function of the gas flow. This is a result of the longer residence time of the gas in the active plasma volume at lower gas flows and higher energy densities. For very high values of the applied radio frequency power the NO density is saturated. From time resolved measurements of the LIF signals the quenching coefficient for the NO(A 2Σ+) state by air is found to be k u,air = 4.2(±0.5) × 10−11 cm3 s−1, while quenching by He is negligible, k u,He ⩽ 1 × 10−14 cm3 s−1. The amount of ambient air intruding the helium effluent is determined as well.

High-efficiency, large-area lattice light-sheet generation by dielectric metasurfaces

Abstract Lattice light-sheet microscopy (LLSM) was developed for long-term live-cell imaging with ultra-fine three-dimensional (3D) spatial resolution, high temporal resolution, and low photo-toxicity by illuminating the sample with a thin lattice-like light-sheet. Currently available schemes for generating thin lattice light-sheets often require complex optical designs. Meanwhile, limited by the bulky objective lens and optical components, the light throughput of existing LLSM systems is rather low. To circumvent the above problems, we utilize a dielectric metasurface of a single footprint to replace the conventional illumination modules used in the conventional LLSM and generate a lattice light-sheet with a ~3-fold broader illumination area and a significantly leveraged illumination efficiency, which consequently leads to a larger field of view with a higher temporal resolution at no extra cost of the spatial resolution. We demonstrate that the metasurface can manipulate spatial frequencies of an input laser beam in orthogonal directions independently to break the trade-off between the field of view and illumination efficiency of the lattice light-sheet. Compared to the conventional LLSM, our metasurface module serving as an ultra-compact illumination component for LLSM at an ease will potentially enable a finer spatial resolution with a larger numerical-aperture detection objective lens.

Compensated Microsphere-Assisted Interference Microscopy

We propose an experimental method in microsphere-assisted interference microscopy that makes it possible to reconstruct surface topographies as much with high quantitative depth accuracy as when the transversal feature sizes are smaller than the classical diffraction limit. The full-field super-resolution interference microscope consists not only of one glass microsphere in the object arm but also of a second similar microsphere in the reference arm. By compensating the sphere aberrations in the two interference arms, the spatial resolution appears to be considerably increased. The increase in the three-dimensional spatial resolution allows for the topography reconstruction of 300-nm-width grating lines and 200-nm-diameter transparent nanopillars.

Transbronchial biopsy of peripheral lung lesions using fluoroscopic guidance combined with an enhanced ray-summation display.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of guidance assistance during transbronchial biopsy (TBB) to achieve an appropriate pathway to small and peripheral pulmonary lesions (PPLs) using a combination of fluoroscopy and specialized ray-summation (Ray-sumTBB) images, which were processed from preprocedural lung computed tomography (CT) images. To improve the visibility of the correct pathway to the PPLs, three-dimensional spatial resolution enhancement and CT number conversion processes were applied to the original CT images. The Ray-sumTBB images reconstructed from the processed CT images were used as additional guides. We compared the rates of successful tumor localization and biopsy (arrival rate) between the trial (with Ray-sumTBB) and control (without Ray-sumTBB) groups. The fluoroscopy and examination times were also compared. The arrival rate of the trial group (73.1%) was significantly better than that of the control group (42.3%) (p = 0.048). The fluoroscopy and examination times did not differ significantly between the trial and control groups. No complications were identified in the trial group. Our results suggest that Ray-sumTBB improves the diagnostic accuracy of TBB.

Traceable atomic force microscope based on monochromatic light interference

Atomic force microscope (AFM) is widely applied to the measurement of the micro-nano structures due to its three-dimensional spatial resolution of sub-nanometer. However, the height measurement traceability in the z-axis is complex to be implemented in conventional AFMs. In this paper, a traceable AFM is developed based on the monochromatic light interference (MLI) principle without probe calibration. The height change of the AFM's probe is directly detected by extracting the phase change of the MLI fringes on the probe tip with the Hilbert transform based phase extraction algorithm, and the three-dimensional surface topography is reconstructed with a surface recovery algorithm. The configuration of tracing to the wavelength of the monochromatic light in real-time further improves the measurement accuracy of the MLI-AFM. A prototype MLI-AFM is established to demonstrate its measurement accuracy enhancement.

Isotropic-resolution photoacoustic microscopy with multi-angle illumination.

We have developed photoacoustic microscopy (PAM) with three-dimensional (3D) micron-level spatial resolution. With multi-angle illumination, PAM images from different view angles can be simultaneously acquired for multi-view deconvolution, without the rotation of imaging targets. A side-by-side comparison of this multi-angle-illumination PAM (MAI-PAM) and conventional PAM, which share the same ultrasonic detector, was performed in phantoms and live mice. The phantom study showed that MAI-PAM achieved a high axial resolution of 3.7μm, which was 10-fold higher than that of conventional PAM and approached the lateral resolution of 2.7μm. Furthermore, the in vivo study demonstrated that MAI-PAM was able to image the 3D microvasculature with isotropic spatial resolution.