The design and application of an in-laboratory diffraction-enhanced x-ray imaging instrument

We describe the design and application of a new in-laboratory diffraction-enhanced x-ray imaging (DEXI) instrument that uses a nonsynchrotron, conventional x-ray source to image the internal structure of an object. In the work presented here, a human cadaveric thumb is used as a test-sample to demonstrate the imaging capability of our instrument. A 22 keV monochromatic x-ray beam is prepared using a mismatched, two-crystal monochromator; a silicon analyzer crystal is placed in a parallel crystal geometry with the monochromator allowing both diffraction-enhanced imaging and multiple-imaging radiography to be performed. The DEXI instrument was found to have an experimentally determined spatial resolution of 160+/-7 mum in the horizontal direction and 153+/-7 mum in the vertical direction. As applied to biomedical imaging, the DEXI instrument can detect soft tissues, such as tendons and other connective tissues, that are normally difficult or impossible to image via conventional x-ray techniques.