Signal-to-noise ratio in x ray dark-field imaging using a grating interferometer

Journal Article · Thu Sep 01 04:00:00 EDT 2011 · Journal of Applied Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3630051· OSTI ID:22038686

Chabior, Michael; Schuster, Manfred ^[1]; Donath, Tilman ^[2]; David, Christian ^[2]; Schroer, Christian ^[3]; Pfeiffer, Franz ^[4]

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1. Siemens AG, Corporate Technology, Muenchen 80200 (Germany)
2. Paul Scherrer Institut, 5232 Villigen PSI (Switzerland)
3. Technische Universitaet Dresden, Dresden 01062 (Germany)
4. Technische Universitaet Muenchen, Garching 85748 (Germany)

In this work, we report an analytical and experimental investigation of the signal-to-noise ratio for a recently developed method called x ray dark-field imaging. Our approach is based on the propagation of signal and noise through the reconstruction algorithm. We find that the statistical nature of the dark-field images can be understood by a Rician distribution. The analysis shows that, for high flux, the noise in the dark-field images is proportional to the noise in the raw data. In the limit of low flux and, thus, low signal-to-noise ratio, the dark-field signal exhibits a breakdown of the signal transmission, which can be described by an asymptotic behavior of the underlying noise distribution. In this limit, the dark-field signal is no longer connected to the coherence degradation, but rather to the attenuation in the sample. The model is verified in exemplary test measurements using a compact laboratory setup with a polychromatic source and a photon counting detector.

• OSTI ID: 22038686
• Journal Information: Journal of Applied Physics, Journal Name: Journal of Applied Physics Journal Issue: 5 Vol. 110; ISSN JAPIAU; ISSN 0021-8979
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
ALGORITHMS
ATTENUATION
COUNTING TECHNIQUES
DATA PROCESSING
DATA TRANSMISSION
IMAGES
INTERFEROMETERS
NOISE
PHOTONS
RADIATION DETECTORS
SIGNAL-TO-NOISE RATIO
SIGNALS
X RADIATION