Abstract
Three-dimensional tomographic imaging using x-ray phase information is reported. The contrast in normal x-ray transmission images is generated by the difference in x-ray absorption. Therefore, structures in weakly x-ray absorbing objects are hardly depicted. Because the interaction cross section of x-ray phase shift is about a thousand times larger than that of absorption for low-Z elements, highly sensitive imaging is achieved by detecting the x-ray phase shift. We used an x-ray interferometer to measure interference patterns and phase-shifting interferometry to obtain x-ray phase maps from the interference patterns. Phase-contrast x-ray CT reconstructs three-dimensional images from the x-ray phase maps. This paper introduces the principle of this technique and observation results obtained for cancerous tissues using synchrotron radiation.
