Ghost Tomography

The quest for imaging protocols with ever-reduced dose is one of the most powerful motivators driving the currently-exploding field of ghost imaging. Ghost tomography using single-pixel detection extends the burgeoning field of ghost imaging to three dimensions, with the use of penetrating radiation. In this work, a series of spatially random x-ray intensity patterns is used to illuminate a specimen in various tomographic angular orientations, with only the total transmitted intensity being recorded by a single-pixel camera (or bucket detector). The set of zero-dimensional intensity readings, combined with knowledge of the corresponding two-dimensional illuminating patterns and specimen orientations, is sufficient for three-dimensional reconstruction of the specimen. The experimental demonstration of ghost tomography is presented here using synchrotron hard x-rays. This result significantly expands the scope of ghost imaging to encompass volumetric imaging (i.e., tomography, of optically opaque objects using penetrating radiation. For hard x-rays, ghost tomography has the potential to decouple image quality from dose rate as well as image resolution from detector performance.