Coded cone-beam X-ray diffraction tomography with a low-brilliance table-top source

X-ray diffraction tomography (XDT) probes the spatially-variant X-ray diffraction (XRD) profile within volumetric objects. Compared to attenuation-based X-ray computed tomography (CT), XDT images display high contrast and specificity among materials with similar absorption coefficient. However, due to the weak signal level of diffraction and the low efficiency in source utilization and detection, conventional XDT systems require high-brilliance synchrotron sources to manage the acquisition time. Here, we propose a multiplexed XDT scheme using full cone-beam illumination coding and eliminating the collimation on detector side, which promotes parallelization in data acquisition and enables simple implementation of compressive measurements, addressing the need of table-top XDT systems in industrial non-destructive testing and medical imaging applications. In this manuscript, we have demonstrated one order of magnitude reduction in XDT acquisition time, making high-contrast 3D X-ray imaging accessible to various research and application areas.