Abstract
X-ray phase tomography that maps the three-dimensional distribution of refractive index was invented in early 1990s by myself, and various X-ray phase-contrast techniques, such as the method for detecting X-ray phase shift or refraction (phase-shift differentiation) and the propagation-based phase retrieval, have been applied to X-ray phase tomography. Recently, the degradation in phase contrast caused by unresolvable scatterers is used as a signal for tomography to visualize three-dimensional scatterers distribution. Although synchrotron radiation was considered to be indispensable for X-ray phase-contrast generation for many years, X-ray phase tomography compatible with a laboratory X-ray generator has been feasible by X-ray Talbot interferometry or X-ray Talbot-Lau interferometry, which detect X-ray refraction and scattering by using X-ray transmission gratings. This technology has been attracting attention from industry, and I will introduce recent progress in this trend.
