Characterization of diffraction enhanced imaging contrast in plants

Abstract Diffraction Enhanced Imaging (DEI) was used to characterize the extinction contrast coefficient of plant tissues. Single-cells were imaged with planar DEI. The organized structures of the plant cell walls were found to exhibit significant extinction contrast and were readily visualized using DEI. Extinction properties of different tissue types in plant roots, stems and seeds were characterized by DEI in Computed Tomography (DEI–CT) mode at the peak of the analyzer-rocking curve. DEI–CT yields different extinction coefficients for different cell types, resulting in high-contrast, high-resolution images of internal anatomical structures of plants.