Speakers
Invited Speaker
As the first imaging systems enabling both phase-contrast and spectral imaging capabilities emerge, it is timely to develop techniques to effectively exploit both channels simultaneously.
The goal is to combine the chemical information from spectral techniques, especially for high-Z elements, with the sensitivity to low-Z elements and microstructured features offered by phase-contrast and dark-field imaging.
This talk presents an update on some advances in spectral phase-contrast imaging, outlining practical setups and processing pipelines for jointly exploiting both signals in laboratory and synchrotron settings. Looking beyond current implementations, the use of hyperspectral detectors, capable of capturing the full incoming X-ray spectrum, will be considered. A proof-of-principle implementation of an hyperspectral detector (Mönch by PSI) within a modulation-based phase-contrast system at the PEPI laboratory will be shown, highlighting opportunities and current bottlenecks. Additionally, perspectives for integrating Timepix4, the next-generation ASIC developed by the CERN Medipix collaboration, within a μCT setup will be presented.
Luca Brombal gained his PhD in Physics at the University of Trieste in 2020. His thesis “X-ray Phase-contrast Tomography: Underlying Physics and Developments for Breast Imaging” has been included in the Springer Thesis: Recognizing Outstanding Ph.D. Research series. In 2021 he was awarded by the Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN) a Young Researcher’s grant for developing a new X-ray laboratory called PEPI (Photon-counting Edge-illumination Phase-contrast Imaging). Since 2022 he has been a researcher at the University of Trieste, and he is currently the PI of the MUST project (A compact multimodal X-ray system for 3D micro-imaging of soft tissue based on the integration of spectral and phase-contrast techniques), funded by the Italian Ministry of University and Research (PRIN-PNRR).