Dependence of image quality on energy spread for a Bragg diffraction based radiography system

The aim of this work is to investigate the relationship between contrast and energy resolution of a quasi-monochromatic X-ray system based on Bragg diffraction on a mosaic crystal. Three different energies have been considered: 18, 22 and 26 keV. A commercial phantom containing large and small area details and a digital detector have been used. Results show that for large area details and for a certain value of energy, the energy spread of the incident X-ray beams produces a small reduction of the contrast, while for small area details the high reduction of the contrast is principally due to the spatial resolution properties of the system.