Experimental setup and the system performance for single-grid-based phase-contrast x-ray imaging (PCXI) with a microfocus x-ray tube

• Simplified PCXI method of a single grid and a polychromatic X-ray source is done.
• This measures the Fourier spectrum of the angular distribution.
• The composition of all the images may help distinguish different features.
• Single-grid-based PCXI method can be adaptable to X-ray imaging modalities.

In this work, we investigated a simplified approach to phase-contrast x-ray imaging (PCXI) by using a single antiscatter grid and a microfocus x-ray tube, which has potential to open the way to further widespread use of PCXI into the related application areas. We established a table-top setup for PCXI studies of biological and non-biological samples and investigated the system performance. The PCXI system consists of a focused-linear grid having a strip density of 200 lines/in. (JPI Healthcare Corp.), a microfocus x-ray tube having a focal spot size of about 5 μm (Hamamatsu, L7910), and a high-resolution CMOS imaging detector having a pixel size of 48 μm (Rad-icon Imaging Corp., Shad-o-Box 2048). By using our prototype system, we successfully obtained attenuation, scattering, and differential phase-contrast x-ray images of improved visibility from the raw images of several samples at x-ray tube conditions of 50 kVp and 6 mAs. Our initial results indicate that the single-grid-based approach seems a useful method for PCXI with great simplicity and minimal requirements on the setup alignment.