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Main Authors: John, Dominik, Breitenhuber, Gregor, Wirtensohn, Sami, Hinterdobler, Franziska, Gaetani, Luka, Savatović, Sara, Lucht, Jens, Osterhoff, Markus, Eckermann, Marina, Salditt, Tim, Herzen, Julia
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.27282
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author John, Dominik
Breitenhuber, Gregor
Wirtensohn, Sami
Hinterdobler, Franziska
Gaetani, Luka
Savatović, Sara
Lucht, Jens
Osterhoff, Markus
Eckermann, Marina
Salditt, Tim
Herzen, Julia
author_facet John, Dominik
Breitenhuber, Gregor
Wirtensohn, Sami
Hinterdobler, Franziska
Gaetani, Luka
Savatović, Sara
Lucht, Jens
Osterhoff, Markus
Eckermann, Marina
Salditt, Tim
Herzen, Julia
contents X-ray microtomography at synchrotron sources is fundamentally limited by the high radiation dose applied to the samples, which restricts investigations to non-native tissue states and thereby compromises the biological relevance of the resulting data. The limitation stems from inefficient indirect detection schemes that require prolonged exposures. Efforts to extract additional contrast through multimodal techniques, like modulation-based imaging, worsen the problem by requiring multiple tomographic scans. In addition, the techniques suffer from low modulator pattern visibility, which reduces measurement efficiency and sensitivity. We address both the detection efficiency and modulation visibility challenges using a novel setup that combines an X-ray waveguide, a structured phase modulator, and a photon-counting detector. Our approach simultaneously achieves near-theoretical limits in both visibility (95%) and quantum efficiency (98%), thereby enabling dose-efficient multimodal microtomography at single-micrometer resolution. This advance will enable new classes of experiments on native-state biological specimens with the potential to advance biomedical research, disease diagnostics, and our understanding of tissue structure in physiological environments.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2510_27282
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Near-perfect efficiency in X-ray phase microtomography
John, Dominik
Breitenhuber, Gregor
Wirtensohn, Sami
Hinterdobler, Franziska
Gaetani, Luka
Savatović, Sara
Lucht, Jens
Osterhoff, Markus
Eckermann, Marina
Salditt, Tim
Herzen, Julia
Optics
Medical Physics
X-ray microtomography at synchrotron sources is fundamentally limited by the high radiation dose applied to the samples, which restricts investigations to non-native tissue states and thereby compromises the biological relevance of the resulting data. The limitation stems from inefficient indirect detection schemes that require prolonged exposures. Efforts to extract additional contrast through multimodal techniques, like modulation-based imaging, worsen the problem by requiring multiple tomographic scans. In addition, the techniques suffer from low modulator pattern visibility, which reduces measurement efficiency and sensitivity. We address both the detection efficiency and modulation visibility challenges using a novel setup that combines an X-ray waveguide, a structured phase modulator, and a photon-counting detector. Our approach simultaneously achieves near-theoretical limits in both visibility (95%) and quantum efficiency (98%), thereby enabling dose-efficient multimodal microtomography at single-micrometer resolution. This advance will enable new classes of experiments on native-state biological specimens with the potential to advance biomedical research, disease diagnostics, and our understanding of tissue structure in physiological environments.
title Near-perfect efficiency in X-ray phase microtomography
topic Optics
Medical Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.27282