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Updated: Oct 20, 2025

Measurement of X-ray Beam Coherence along Multiple Directions Using 2-D Checkerboard Phase Grating
Published on: October 11, 2016
Beam orientation optimization for coherent X-ray scattering from distributed deep targets
Sophya Breedlove1, Aldo Badano2
1Division of Imaging, Diagnostics, and Software Reliability, Office of Science and Engineering Laboratories, Center for Devices and Radiological Health, Food and Drug Administration, 10903 New Hampshire Avenue, Silver Spring, MD, 20993, USA.
Background:
Amyloid deposits in the temporal and frontal lobes in patients with Alzheimer's disease make them potential targets to aid in early diagnosis. Recently, spectral small-angle X-ray scattering techniques have been proposed for interrogating deep targets such as amyloid plaques.
Results:
We describe an optimization approach for the orientation of beams for deep target characterization. The model predicts the main features of scattering profiles from targets with varying shape, size and location. We found that increasing target size introduced additional smearing due to location uncertainty, and incidence angle affected the scattering profile by altering the path length or effective target size. For temporal and frontal lobe targets, beam effectiveness varied up to 2 orders of magnitude.
Conclusions:
Beam orientation optimization might allow for patient-specific optimal paths for improved signal characterization.
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