A new imaging modality based on the measurement of low angle (coherent) x-ray scatter radiation is described. This technique allows, in addition to conventional transmission computed tomography (CT), the two dimensional distribution of the coherent scatter cross-section to be mapped. The potential of coherent scatter arises from the fact that it evidences diffraction effects, which are not only present in regular crystals (interference patterns), but also in biological tissue, plastic and other construction materials. The form of the coherent scatter cross-sect ion is related to the types of atoms present in the sample and also their relative locations. Some diffraction patterns of biological samples and plastic materials are presented to illustrate the sensitivity of x-ray diffraction for diagnosing disease and characterizing materials. We present some typical coherent scatter images of simple objects obtained with an experimental system, illustrating the potential of our technique in computed tomography (CT) and computed radiography (CR) applications. Possibilities for improving the contrast/noise ratio using an angular resolved measuring system are discussed.

Date Published: 14 October 1987
PDF: 8 pages
Proc. SPIE 0804, Advances in Image Processing, (14 October 1987); doi: 10.1117/12.941306

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 0804:
Advances in Image Processing
Andre J. Oosterlinck; Andrew G. Tescher, Editor(s)