Phase contrast X-ray imaging of large samples using an incoherent laboratory source

An interferometric method to record quantitative X-ray phase contrast images has been developed that can be used at polychromatic and incoherent X-ray sources such as laboratory tubes. With respect to previously presented results, in this work we report on recent developments and results that have been achieved in view of potential future applications such as in medicine or biology. In particular, due to improvements in the fabrication process large area diffraction gratings with high aspect ratio were achieved. Thereby, the field of view of the interterometer has been drastically increased to 64 x 64 mm(2) and the design value of the photon energy for the gratings could be increased up to 28 keV. Moreover, the use of a Medipix2 single photon-counting pixel detector shows a considerable improvement in image quality and sensitivity over the integrating detector used so far.