Differential Phase-Contrast Imaging Experimental System Under the Incoherent Condition With Conventional X-Ray Tubes

Hard X-ray phase-contrast imaging provides high sensitivity of weakly absorbing low-Z objects in medicine, biology and materials science. The traditional viewpoint is that coherent X-rays and coherent measurements are essential to hard X-ray phase-contrast imaging. In this paper, a differential phase-contrast imaging experimental system is introduced to obtain refraction-angle images based on the theory of infinite fringe moire deflectometry under the incoherent condition with weakly coherent X-rays from the conventional X-ray tube without Talbot effect. The experiments on material and biological samples prove that differential phase-contrast imaging can be realized under more relaxed condition.