Patent Number: 
Section: description

The simple X-ray imaging system 10 depicted in FIG. 1 includes a collimated white beam generator 11. The generator is preferably but not exclusively a synchrotron radiation generator. Further components are a defining slit 12, a filter 13, a detector 14 and a computer 15. A defining slit 12 is positioned behind of the collimated white beam generator 11 in order to travel the collimated white beam 1 through the defining slit 12. The filter 13 is situated behind the defining slit 12. An object O is situated behind the filter 13. If necessary, an object stage may be arranged behind the slit 12 so as to hold the object O to detect in a position. The detector 14 is situated behind the object O in order to detect the beam passing through the object. The detector 14 includes a CdWO4 single crystal scintillator 14a cleaved to a thickness of  less than 100 xe2x96xa1mxe2x80x94which is resistant to radiation damage and highly homogenous, an optical microscopy objective 14b with either 10xc3x97 or 32xc3x97 and a commercial-grade CCD video camera 14c.  The high-resolution radiograph on the scintillator is magnified with an optical microscopy objective with either 10xc3x97 or 32xc3x97magnification, and captured by a commercial-grade CCD video camera. The detector provided a good compromise between lateral resolution and high intensity (required for time resolution). It enables us to see details with a resolution of 2-3 xe2x96xa1m, and to detect their evolution in real time, with a video rate of 30 image frames/sec. In an other embodiment, the detector also may include a X-ray CCD camera. In particular, in the embodiments electronic imaging detectors such as those based on charge coupled devices (CCD""s) may be used for high speed and, in some cases, real-time recording of images. A computer 15 is connected to the detector 14 in order to obtain an image of the object based on the output of the detector 14. Now, a method of imaging an object will be described below. A collimated white beam is generated by a source 11. The collimated white beam 1 is usually emitted from a synchrotron radiation source. In this embodiment, from the DB-beamline at the SRRC (Synchrotron Radiation Research Center, Hsinchu, Taiwan) 1.5 GeV storage ring and on the 1B2 beamline at PLS (Pohang Light source, Pohang, Korea), operating at 2.5 GeV is emitted a collimated white beam 1. The collimated white beam 1 is then introduced into a slit 12. The beam 1 travelling through the slit 12 is introduced into a filter 13. The filter 13 filters out photon energies lower than a selected energy level from the collimated white beam introduced into the filter 13, thereby producing an unmonochromatized beam 2. In this embodiment, the selected energy level of the collimated white beam is about 10 KeV. The collimated white beam filtered out by the filter 13, that is xe2x80x9can unmonochromatized beamxe2x80x9d is irradiated into an object O. Since longitudinal coherence is not a stringent requirement for refractive-index radiology, in this embodiment an unmonochromatized beam without any special optical element is used. At this time, the object O is placed on a beam path. The term xe2x80x9cunmonochromatized beamxe2x80x9d is defined herein as X-rays with a broad-band width photon energy distribution in which photon energies lower than a selected photon energy level are filtered out from a collimated white beam by a filter. Unmonochromatized beam image 3 having passed through the object O is detected by a detector 14, thereby providing an image. A scintillation crystal 14a included in the detector 14 serves to convert X-rays into visible rays. Image of the object O based on the output of the detector 14 is displayed on a monitor 15 or printed. This image may be saved in a computer or recorded on a video recorder. FIG. 2A shows a radiograph of small fish taken with about 9 keV monochromatized photon beam according to a known technique. The object to the detector is 0.3 m. FIG. 2B shows a radiograph of small fish taken with an unmonochromatized (white) photon beam in the embodiment according to this invention. The object to the detector is also 0.3 m. The image of FIG. 2A was obtained with an monochromatized photon beam with about 9 keV photon energy and 10 sec. exposure whereas the image of FIG. 2B was obtained with an unmonochromatized (white) photon beam and 10 ms exposure per image. The field of view was 300 xe2x96xa1m in both images. From the two radiographs, it is noted that the image of FIG. 2B shows the same resolution but much shorter exposure than that of FIG. 2A. Therefore, according to this embodiment of this invention, it is possible to image an object with high resolution and real-time response without any damage to the object. According to this invention, highly collimated and coherent X-ray sources provide an excellent solution to two major problems in radiography: poor contrast and poor lateral resolution. It is demonstrated that this solution can be implemented with high lateral resolution and fast time resolution, thereby opening the way to real-time microradiology investigations. The key factor in this novel radiology approach is to achieve contrast by using the refractive index rather than absorption. The corresponding mechanisms can be either edge diffraction or edge refraction. A simple, relatively inexpensive and reliable experimental setup which enables to test the approach in real-time investigations is developed. It is also demonstrated that real-time microradiology is feasible with the majority of the present synchrotron sources. A number of improvements that enhance our time-resolved approach are also considered and/or implemented. A lateral resolution of a few tenths of a micron can be expected by using a photoelectron-microscope-based detection technique. A better video camera would increase the number of pixels but possibly slow down the time per frame. Such improvements would also decrease the total equivalent radioactive dose in view of medical applications. The situation is already quite interesting in that regard, since the possibility to operate on small areas with microradiology decreases by at least six orders of magnitude the equivalent does with respect to a conventional 200xc3x97200 mm2 radiograph, taken with the same detection method and photon flux. In conclusion, successful tests of real-time microradiology with collimated synchrotron radiation, using an unmonochromatized (xe2x80x98whitexe2x80x99) X-ray beam and a simple and effective detection system are performed. The advantages of time resolution are too evident to need further comments. In particular, preliminary tests on live specimens raise the possibility of novel diagnostic applications of microradiology as well as of a variety of applications in the life sciences. The method for imaging an object according to the embodiments of this invention has the following benefits in contrast with those of prior art. 1. The image quality of radiography strongly depends on the quality of the optical element of the entire imaging system. The X-ray optics used to obtain xe2x80x9cphase contrastxe2x80x9d are typically difficult to make and to optimize. The deterioration of the optical properties of any of the X-ray optical elements in an optical path, will either greatly reduce the imaging quality or simply eliminate the xe2x80x9cphase contrastxe2x80x9d effect. This invention eliminates the necessity of using X-ray optics and can be applied to any small size collimated source. 2. This invention prevents the reduction in the X-ray intensity due to the X-ray optics. 3. This invention removes the necessity of using monochromatic X-ray for imaging. 4. This invention changes the photon energy spectrum that would be produced by absorbing optical elements, shifting its central photon energy to higher values. 5. According to this invention, a large fraction of the initial photon flux is used, thereby the time resolution and the lateral resolution are improved. The range of potential applications of the proposed imaging systems and methods of this invention is vast. The range spans the fields of materials science, manufacturing industry, geology, biological, biomedical and clinical medicine. In this disclosure, there is shown and described only the preferred embodiments of the invention, but, as aforementioned, it is to be understood that the invention is capable of use in various other combinations and environments and is capable of changes or modifications within the scope of the inventive concept as expressed herein.