Imaging systems leveraging on the small angle X-ray scattering signal are sensitive to microstructures with feature sizes well below the intrinsic setup resolution and in a large field of view. It has been demonstrated that dedicated optical elements with a circular shape, in addition to isotropic structural information, also provide projection images with details on anisotropic features in a single shot. When this information is combined in a tomographic approach, it is possible to efficiently study in 3D materials with structures with an orientation varying in space and time. In addition, the single shot characteristic of this technique combined with the high flux of synchrotron facilities is perfectly suited for in-situ and time resolved studies, sparking new unique opportunities for materials science applications for instance in the aerospace and energy fields.
Currently the intrinsic spatial resolution of the setup is limited by the dedicated optical elements to about 100 microns and the nano- and microstructures of interest are assumed to be homogeneously oriented within voxels of this size.
To move the technique forward, it is imperative to diversify the intrinsic spatial resolution of the setup by developing sets of different optical elements and to generalize the assumptions about the structural orientation within a voxel, with more sophisticated theoretical frameworks than used so far to cover more complex arrangements of microstructures.
Publications
- Kim J, Kagias M, Marone F, Stampanoni M, X-ray scattering tensor tomography with circular gratings, Applied Physics Letters. 2020; 116(13): 134102 (5 pp.).
- Kim J, Kagias M, Marone F, Shi Z, Stampanoni M, Fast acquisition protocol for X-ray scattering tensor tomography, Scientific Reports. 2021; 11(1): 23046 (13 pp.) 2021.
- Kim J, Slyamov A, Lauridsen E, Birkbak M, Ramos T, Marone F, et al., Macroscopic mapping of microscale fibers in freeform injection molded fiber-reinforced composites using X-ray scattering tensor tomography, Composites Part B: Engineering. 2022; 233: 109634 (11 pp.).
- Kim J, Pelt DM, Kagias M, Stampanoni M, Batenburg KJ, Marone F, Tomographic reconstruction of the small-angle x-ray scattering tensor with filtered back projection, Physical Review Applied. 2022; 18(1): 014043 (7 pp.).
- Auenhammer RM, Kim J, Oddy C, Mikkelsen LP, Marone F, Stampanoni M, et al., X-ray scattering tensor tomography based finite element modelling of heterogeneous materials, npj Computational Materials. 2024; 10: 50 (11 pp.).
Collaboration
- Alain Studer, Science IT Infrastructure and Services, Paul Scherrer Institut
Past funding
- European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Grant Agreement No. 765604)
- EUROSTARS INFORMAT E! 11060 project
Industrial implementation
- Xnovo Technology ApS, Denmark - FiberScanner3DTM