II Workshop s-Braxin on New technologies in X-Ray Imaging

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Contact: danays.kunka@kit.edu

Research Topics: Emerging X-ray Optics, Grating based X-ray Imaging

Danays Kunka is member of the X-ray Optics Group, division of Optics and Photonics since September 2011. She obtained her PhD in Physics at the Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC) in collaboration with the Brazilian Center for Research in Physics (CBPF) in 2001, where she worked as scientist until 2006. She also worked at the Institute of Experimental Nuclear Physics of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) from 2006 until 2011. She is currently responsible for the X-ray Imaging Application Group at the Institute of Microstructure Technology (IMT). The X-ray gratings group is worldwide leading for the development of X-ray gratings with high aspect ratio, the main optical component for a novel X-ray imaging modality called differential phase contrast imaging.

Contribution: Grating-based X-ray Talbot interferometry for nondestructive investigations

Conventional X-ray imaging has been used for decades as a non-invasive and non-destructive diagnosis technique in medicine and industry. It relies on the attenuation of the x-rays while passing through matter. As the contrast is obtained through the differences in the absorption cross section of the constituents, a good contrast is achieved for highly absorbing structures embedded in weak absorbing materials such as iron inside of plastic. However, the contrast is very poor for weak x-ray absorbing materials like plastic foams and in those cases where a composite material with similar absorption cross-sections of the components is under investigation.

The grating based X-ray interferometry (GI) has been introduced to enhance the discrimination among different types of components. GI exploits differences in the refractive index of different materials, thus offering multimodal information based not only on absorption, but also on small angle scattering and phase contrast. It can be used in a variety of applications such as:

- Preclinical imaging of soft tissues;

- Determination of composite materials structural orientation;

- Dynamical imaging of crack growth behavior of self-healing materials under fatigue loading;

- Monitoring of liquid penetration in porous materials;

This presentation will provide an overview of the GI principle, the potential and applications of this technique focusing mainly on material sciences.