Recent developments in hard X-ray tomography

A new technique for magnified hard X-ray tomography using compound refractive lenses (CRLs) has been tested. A full-field X-ray microscope was included into a conventional microtomography setup at a synchrotron undulator beamline. Experiments were carried out at 19.7 keV with a monochromatic beam as well as with the so-called “pink” beam using a larger energy bandwidth. During this pilot experiment a resolution of about 1 μm was already achieved, which corresponds to the best resolution obtained with phase-contrast enhanced microtomography. The technique has the potential to increase the spatial resolution of hard-X-ray microtomography to a scale of several hundred nanometers.