Sub-second dynamic x-ray micro-CT and fast phase-sensitive multi-contrast micro-CT with a laboratory source

A rotating-anode x-ray source and custom-built sCMOS-based detector have been integrated into a lab-based micro-CT system to demonstrate full CT acquisition in as little as 132ms. This has been used to examine the expansion of a polymer foam in 4D, with a temporal resolution of 2Hz. The system is easily adapted to carry out fast phase-sensitive multi-contrast CT with sub-10s CT acquisition times. This is made possible through the beam-tracking technique, which is capable of multi-contrast CT using only a single shot per projection angle, while also being compatible with incoherent sources. This paves the way to dynamic, phase-sensitive, multi-contrast micro-CT in the laboratory.