219101 干渉法による沸騰気泡周囲液体の温度計測(OS10 熱流体計測の新展開1,オーガナイズド・セッション)

Conventional X-ray absorption contrast imaging does not depict soft tissues, such as cartilage, in sufficient detail. For visualization of the soft tissues, X-ray phase-contrast imaging is more sensitive than absorption-contrast imaging. The basic concept of the X-ray phase-contrast imaging used in this study is similar to that of differential interference contrast (Nomarski) microscopy. We applied Talbot-Lau X-ray interferometry to visualize the joint structures in the right hand and knee of a donated cadaver. This imaging system simultaneously produced three different types of images: an absorption image, a differential phase image, and a visibility image. The interface between the articular cartilage of the metacarpo-phalangeal joint and fluid or the bony cortex was clearly demonstrated on the differential phase image, whereas this interface was unclear on the absorption image. Within the knee joint, the surface of the articular cartilage was demonstrated both on the differential phase and visibility images; the medial collateral ligament and medial meniscus were also visualized successfully. These results are clinically significant for the diagnosis and therapeutic estimation of rheumatoid arthritis and related joint diseases. This feasibility study on the clinical application of this imaging tool was a collaborative effort of researchers in the fields of physics, radiology, and gross anatomy.

To solve the 2 ? phase ambiguity for phase-resolved Doppler images in Doppler optical coherence tomography, we present a modified network programming technique for the first time to the best of our knowledge. The proposed method assumes that error of the discrete derivatives between unwrapped phase image and wrapped phase image can be arbitrary values instead of integer-multiple of 2 ? , which makes the real-phase restoration accurate and robust against noise. We compared our proposed method with the network programming method. Parameters including root-mean-square-error and noise amplification degree were adopted for comparison. The experimental study on simulated images, phantom, and real-vessel OCT images were performed. The proposed method consistently achieves optimal results.

Grating-based x-ray phase-contrast imaging is a fast developing new modality not only for medical imaging, but as well for other fields such as material sciences. While these many possible applications arise, the knowledge of the noise behavior is essential. In this work, the authors used a least squares fitting algorithm to calculate the noise behavior of the three quantities absorption, differential phase, and dark-field image. Further, the calculated error formula of the differential phase image was verified by measurements. Therefore, a Talbot interferometer was setup, using a microfocus x-ray tube as source and a Timepix detector for photon counting. Additionally, simulations regarding this topic were performed. It turned out that the variance of the reconstructed phase is only dependent of the total number of photons used to generate the phase image and the visibility of the experimental setup. These results could be evaluated in measurements as well as in simulations. Furthermore, the correlation between absorption and dark-field image was calculated. These results provide the understanding of the noise characteristics of grating-based phase-contrast imaging and will help to improve image quality.

Optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) suffers from more motion artifacts compared to optical coherence tomography, which are the primary source of image quality degradation in in vivo imaging. We propose an OCTA algorithm in this Letter that differs from motion compensation methods widely employed to reduce motion artifacts and effectively mitigates these artifacts. The algorithm integrates differential phase and intensity images based on the standard deviation of the flow signals. The performance of this algorithm is evaluated on mouse retina in vivo imaging. Compared to three conventional OCTA algorithms, the OCTA images obtained by the proposed algorithm exhibit fewer motion artifacts and less noise in tissue regions, with maximum improvements of 1.38 dB and 0.82 in signal-to-noise ratio and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), respectively, in the maximum projection of en face images.

The behavior of near-wall bubbles in subcooled flow boiling has been investigated photographically for water flow in vertical, one-side heated and rectangular channels at mass fluxes of 500, 1500, 2000 kg/m2s under atmospheric pressure and for R134a in channels of the same kind at mass fluxes of 1000, 2000 kg/m2s under 7 bar. Digital photographic techniques are used for the visualization, which are rapidly advanced in recent. Primary attention is given to the bubble coalescence phenomenon and the structure of the near-wall bubble layer. At subcooled and low-quality conditions of both fluids, discrete attached bubbles, sliding bubbles, small coalesced bubbles and large coalesced bubbles or vapor clots are observed on the heated surface as the heat flux is increased from a low value. Particularly for R134a, vapor remnants below discrete bubble on the heating surface are observed. Nucleation site density increases with the increases in heat flux and channel-averaged enthalpy, while discrete bubbles coalesce and form large bubbles, resulting in large vapor clots. Waves formed on the surface of the vapor clots are closely related to Helmholtz instability. At sufficiently high heat fluxes, three characteristic layers were observed in the heated channel: (a) a superheated liquid layer with small bubbles attached on the heated wall, (b) a flowing bubble layer consisting of large coalesced bubbles over the superheated liquid layer, and (c) the liquid core over the flowing bubble layer.

The phase images of cells and tissues are of great importance for obtaining their morphological and dynamics information. However, because of the uniform optical path-length of a light field passing through the inhomogeneous cells whose nuclei’ shape and structure are different but with equivalent physical thickness, we can not identify their subgroup just from their phase images, since their wrapped phase images have similar shape. Thus we put out a new idea that uses their scattering distributions as a auxiliary criterion for identifying cells with different nuclei structure. We built the ellipsoidal models to denote the cells’ external shape and placed three kinds of nuclei, such as hexahedron, cylinder and spheroid, into the center of ellipsoids to compose nucleated leucocytes. Employing the VirtualLab software to carry out the simulations, we first prove that, for cells with different nuclei structures, their wrapped phase distributions indeed have similar shape. Then after analyzing the results of scattering simulations, we obtain some important scattering characteristics related with their different nuclei’ shape and structures which are very useful for helping us to identify blood cells’ subgroup and can also provide good guidance for experimental research on inhomogeneous cells.

Taking advantage of the fact that an X-ray Talbot interferometer functions with X-rays of a broad energy bandwidth, high-speed X-ray phase tomography has been demonstrated by using white synchrotron light. Time resolution in addition to three-dimensional spatial resolution has been attained, and we report this achievement as the first four-dimensional (4D) X-ray phase tomography. Moire image movies of samples rotating at a speed of 1 or 2 rps generated by a Talbot interferometer were recorded at a frame rate of up to 1 kf/s, and differential phase image movies of the same frame rate were created by the Fourier-transform method. Consequently, a sub-second time resolution was achieved in the 4D phase tomography, while the spatial resolution was below 0.1 mm and 0.05 mm in axial and in-plane directions, respectively. An X-ray Talbot interferometer generates visibility images in addition to differential phase images, showing the distribution of microstructures, which cause ultra-small angle scattering but cannot be resolved individually with system spatial resolution. Tomographic image reconstruction from the visibility images was also demonstrated.

We show that a distribution of micrometer-sized calcifications in the human breast which are not visible in clinical x-ray mammography at diagnostic dose levels can produce a significant dark-field signal in a grating-based x-ray phase-contrast imaging setup with a tungsten anode x-ray tube operated at 40 kVp. A breast specimen with invasive ductal carcinoma was investigated immediately after surgery by Talbot–Lau x-ray interferometry with a design energy of 25 keV. The sample contained two tumors which were visible in ultrasound and contrast-agent enhanced MRI but invisible in clinical x-ray mammography, in specimen radiography and in the attenuation images obtained with the Talbot–Lau interferometer. One of the tumors produced significant dark-field contrast with an exposure of 0.85 mGy air-kerma. Staining of histological slices revealed sparsely distributed grains of calcium phosphate with sizes varying between 1 and 40 μm in the region of this tumor. By combining the histological investigations with an x-ray wave-field simulation we demonstrate that a corresponding distribution of grains of calcium phosphate in the form of hydroxylapatite has the ability to produce a dark-field signal which would—to a substantial degree—explain the measured dark-field image. Thus we have found the appearance of new information (compared to attenuation and differential phase images) in the dark-field image. The second tumor in the same sample did not contain a significant fraction of these very fine calcification grains and was invisible in the dark-field image. We conclude that some tumors which are invisible in x-ray absorption mammography might be detected in the x-ray dark-field image at tolerable dose levels.

A novel information retrieval algorithm for X-ray grating-based phase-contrast imaging based on the deconvolution of the object and the reference phase stepping curve (PSC) as proposed by Modregger et al. was investigated in this paper. We applied the method for the first time on data obtained with a polychromatic spectrum and compared the results to those, received by applying the commonly used method, based on a Fourier analysis. We confirmed the expectation, that both methods deliver the same results for the absorption and the differential phase image. For the darkfield image, a mean contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) increase by a factor of 1.17 using the new method was found. Furthermore, the dose saving potential was estimated for the deconvolution method experimentally. It is found, that for the conventional method a dose which is higher by a factor of 1.66 is needed to obtain a similar CNR value compared to the novel method. A further analysis of the data revealed, that the improvement in CNR and dose efficiency is due to the superior background noise properties of the deconvolution method, but at the cost of comparability between measurements at different applied dose values, as the mean value becomes dependent on the photon statistics used.

Electron differential microscopy using an electron trapezoidal prism

Series of thermodiffusion experiments using optical digital interferometry (ODI) have been conducted onboard the International Space Station. Conventionally, the two-dimensional (2D) fast Fourier transform (FFT) fringe analysis technique has been applied as a fast and reliable technique to extract data. In this study, for the first time, the windowed Fourier transform (WFT) method is used to analyse the same experiments. In this method, a Fourier transformation is applied on the fringes at two different stages: initially, during the filtration of the non-zero peaks and then on the wrapped phase image. We provide a detailed comparison between FFT and WFT results of binary and ternary mixtures for ODI thermodiffusion experiments. The substantial enhancements of this method are presented and discussed for different experiments conducted for both binary and ternary mixtures. We show that while disturbances in the phase fringe pattern can cause significant error in FFT techniques, if the windowed Fourier filtration (WFF) parameters are properly chosen this type of noise can be eliminated during WFF analysis. The importance of replacing the FFT method becomes more pronounced for the ternary system, as this method fails to reconcile reliable concentration profiles. The results of this chapter can show that the application of the windowed Fourier transform in optical digital interferometry investigations show improved results over the same experiments analysed using FFT methods, especially for experiments involving very small heat and mass fluxes such as the Soret effect in multicomponent mixtures.

Microchannel-plate (MCP) detectors, when used at pulsed-neutron-source instruments, offer the possibility of high spatial resolution and high contrast imaging with pixel-level spectroscopic information. Here we demonstrate the possibility of multimodal analysis including total neutron cross-section spectra measurements, quantitative material differentiation imaging, and texture-sensitive in-line phase imaging, from a single exposure using an MCP detector. This multimodal approach operates in full-field imaging mode, with the neutron transmission spectra acquired at each individual detector pixel. Due to the polychromatic nature of the beam and spectroscopic resolving capability of the detector, no energy scanning is required. Good agreement with the library reference data is demonstrated for neutron cross-section spectra measurements. Two different images corresponding to two selected energy bandwidths are used for elemental differentiation imaging. Moreover, the presence of changes in texture, i.e., preferred grain orientation, in the sample is identified from our phase-retrieval imaging results.

X-ray phase imaging based on the Lau effect is demonstrated with an incoherent laboratory X-ray source. Its optical configuration resembles the inverse geometry of the X-ray Talbot–Lau interferometer, which employs a large-area amplitude grating. However, the proposed approach avoids the use and hence fabrication difficulty of such a grating, which is advantageous when constructing an X-ray phase imaging apparatus. With a Mo-target source, differential phase images of polymer spheres were successfully obtained and a design concept for downsizing the system is also described.

We are attempting to expand the technology of X-ray grating phase imaging/tomography to enable dynamic observation. X-ray phase imaging has been performed mainly for static cases, and this challenge is significant since properties of materials (and hopefully their functions) would be understood by observing their dynamics in addition to their structure, which is an inherent advantage of X-ray imaging. Our recent activities in combination with white synchrotron radiation for this purpose are described. Taking advantage of the fact that an X-ray grating interferometer functions with X-rays of a broad energy bandwidth (and therefore high flux), movies of differential phase images and visibility images are obtained with a time resolution of a millisecond. The time resolution of X-ray phase tomography can therefore be a second. This study is performed as a part of a project to explore X-ray grating interferometry, and our other current activities are also briefly outlined.

A new type of all fiber inline Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) based on single mode-multimode-thin core-multimode optical fiber and cascaded with a fiber Bragg grating (FBG) structure is proposed. Its temperature performance is experimental studied. In our experiments, the sensitivity of this MZI is about 157pm/℃ from 17 to 95°C. When FBG is heated only, the temperature sensitivity of FBG cascaded MZI is 9.83pm/℃. It can be found that the reference spectrum dip wavelength of MIZ can be modulated by cascaded FBG.