Properties of a Joint Reconstruction Method for Edge-Illumination X-Ray Phase-Contrast Tomography

Edge illumination X-ray phase-contrast tomography (EIXPCT) is an emerging technique for estimating the complex-valued refractive index distribution of an imaged object. A conventional EIXPCT system requires measurement of multiple images at each tomographic view angle, leading to prolonged data acquisition times. Recently, a joint reconstruction (JR) method has been developed to enable single-shot EIXPCT imaging without restrictive assumptions related to the object, imaging geometry or hardware. In the JR method, estimates of the refractive index distribution are recast as the solution to a nonlinear optimization problem. While a preliminary study has demonstrated the potential usefulness of the JR method, its numerical properties remain largely unexplored. In this project, the convexity, cross-talk properties and noise properties of the JR method are investigated.