Computed tomography using synchrotron radiation

Abstract X-ray computed tomography (CT) is a widely used method of obtaining cross sectional views of objects. The high intensity, natural collimation, monochromaticity and energy tunability of synchrotron X-ray sources could potentially be used to provide CT images of improved quality. The advantages of these systems would be that images could be produced more rapidly with better spatial resolution and reduced beam artifacts. In addition images, in some cases, could be acquired with elemental sensitivity. As a demonstration of the capability of such a system, CT images were obtained of four slices of an excised pig heart, in which the arteries and cardiac chambers were filled with an iodinated medium. Images were taken with incident X-rays tuned successively to energies just above and below the iodine K edge. Iodine specific images were obtained by logarithmically subtracting the low energy image data from the high energy data and then reconstructing the image. CT imaging using synchrotron radiation may become a convenient and non-destructive method of imaging samples difficult to study by other methods.