Phase-contrast X-ray imaging with synchrotron radiation for materials science applications A.W. Stevenson a, * , T.E. Gureyev a , D. Paganin a,b , S.W. Wilkins a , T. Weitkamp c , A. Snigirev c ,C.Rau c , I. Snigireva c , H.S. Youn d , I.P. Dolbnya c , W. Yun e , B. Lai f , R.F. Garrett g , D.J. Cookson g , K. Hyodo h , M. Ando h a CSIRO Manufacturing and Infrastructure Technology, Private Bag 33, Clayton South MDC, Vic. 3169, Australia b School of Physics and Materials Engineering, P.O. Box 69M, Monash University, Vic. 3800, Australia c European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, BP 220, 38043 Grenoble Cedex, France d PAL, POSTECH, Pohang Institute of Science and Technology, P.O. Box 125, Pohang 790-600, South Korea e Xradia, 4075A Sprig Drive, Concord, CA 94520-8535, USA f Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory, 9700 S. Cass Avenue, Argonne, IL 60439, USA g Australian Synchrotron Research Program, c/-ANSTO, Building 16, PMB 1, Menai, NSW 2234, Australia h Photon Factory, Institute of Materials Structure Science, High Energy Accelerator Research Organization, 1-1 Oho, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0801, Japan Abstract Since R€ ontgenÕs discovery of X-rays just over a century ago the vast majority of radiographs have been collected and interpreted on the basis of absorption contrast and geometrical (ray) optics. Recently the possibility of obtaining new and complementary information in X-ray images by utilizing phase-contrast effects has received considerable attention, both in the laboratory context and at synchrotron sources (where much of this activity is a consequence of the highly coherent X-ray beams which can be produced). Phase-contrast X-ray imaging is capable of providing improved in- formation from weakly absorbing features in a sample, together with improved edge definition. Four different exper- imental arrangements for achieving phase contrast in the hard X-ray regime, for the purpose of non-destructive characterization of materials, will be described. Two of these, demonstrated at ESRF in France and AR in Japan, are based on parallel-beam geometry; the other two, demonstrated at PLS in Korea and APS in USA, are based on spherical-beam geometry. In each case quite different X-ray optical arrangements were used. Some image simulations will be employed to demonstrate salient features of hard X-ray phase-contrast imaging and examples of results from each of the experiments will be shown. Ó 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PACS: 41.50.+h; 42.25.)p; 07.85.Qe; 87.59.Bh Keywords: Phase contrast; X-ray imaging; Coherence; X-ray optics 1. Introduction X-ray imaging finds application in many diverse fields including medicine, industrial inspection, * Corresponding author. Tel.: +61-3-9545-2917; fax: +61-3- 9544-1128. E-mail address: andrew.stevenson@csiro.au (A.W. Steven- son). 0168-583X/02/$ - see front matter Ó 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII:S0168-583X(02)01557-4 Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B 199 (2003) 427–435 www.elsevier.com/locate/nimb