Improvements of a laboratory phase-contrast nano-computed tomography system

Nano Computed Tomography (nanoCT) is a powerful tool for non-destructive three-dimensional specimen visualization and investigation at the submicron scale. Here, we present our lensless lab-based nanoCT setup, which combines a nanofocus x-ray source with a photon-counting detector. On the one hand, the x-ray source’s coherence enables propagation-based phase-contrast, which is beneficial for investigating low-absorbing specimens, e.g., in virtual 3D-histology of biopsies and material science. We describe the setup, discuss its optimization, focusing on acquisition speed and field of view increase, and present the latest results.