Microsecond time-resolved 2D X-ray imaging ☆

Abstract A method is presented which allows to take two-dimensional X-ray images of repetitive processes with recording times in the sub-microsecond range. Various measurements have been performed with a recently introduced novel two-dimensional single photon counter which has been slightly modified in order to determine the exact arrival time of each detected photon. For this purpose a special clock signal is synchronized with the process and is digitized contemporaneously with each event. This technique can be applied even with rate limited detectors and low flux sources, since—unlike in conventional methods, where chopped beams or gated read out electronics are used—all photons are used for the image formation. For the measurements, rapidly moving mechanical systems and conventional X-ray sources have been used, reaching time resolutions of some 10 μs. The technique presented here opens a variety of new biological, medical and industrial applications which will be discussed. As a first application example, three dimensional tomographic reconstructions of rapidly rotating objects (4000 turns/min) are presented.