Complex dark-field contrast in grating-based x-ray phase contrast imaging

Abstract

Without assuming that the sub-pixel microstructures of an object to be imaged distribute in space randomly, we investigate the influence of the object's microstructures on grating-based x-ray phase contrast imaging. Our theoretical analysis and 3D computer simulation study based on the paraxial Fresnel-Kirchhoff theory show that the existing dark-field contrast can be generalized into a complex dark-field contrast in a way such that its imaginary part quantifies the effect of the object's sub-pixel microstructures on the phase of intensity oscillations. A method based on the phase-attenuation duality that holds for soft tissues to be imaged at high x-ray energies is proposed to retrieve the imaginary part of the complex dark-field contrast for imaging. In comparison to the existing dark-field contrast, the imaginary part of complex dark-field contrast exhibits significantly stronger selectivity on the shape of the object's sub-pixel microstructures. Thus the x-ray imaging corresponding to the imaginary part of complex dark-field contrast can provide additional and complementary information to that corresponding to the attenuation contrast, phase contrast and the existing dark-field contrast.