Polychromatic quantitative absorption tomography for multi-component samples with cross-contamination artifact...

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Physics
• Medical Imaging

Background:

• Quantitative computed tomography (QAT) faces challenges with beam-hardening and cross-contamination in multi-component samples using polychromatic X-rays.
• Accurate material density reconstruction is crucial for analyzing complex samples.

Purpose of the Study:

• To extend polychromatic QAT for reconstructing component-specific density maps in two-component samples.
• To develop a quantitative correction procedure for residual cross-contamination artifacts.

Main Methods:

• Decomposition of sinograms from two X-ray spectra using a spectral forward model.
• Segmentation of linear attenuation reconstructions to obtain spatial reference masks.
• Quantitative correction of contaminated regions in the sinogram domain.

Main Results:

• Improved material separation and reduced streak artifacts in Al-Cu wire samples.
• Reconstructed densities were within one standard deviation of independently measured values.
• The extended QAT technique demonstrated effective component-specific density mapping.

Conclusions:

• The enhanced QAT technique and correction procedure offer a physically consistent method for quantitative densitometry.
• The methodology is extensible to samples with 'n' components.
• This approach significantly improves material analysis in multi-component systems.