Our vision is to marry UCL's world-class research and expertise on phase-based XRI (see here), inverse problems and nanofabrication with NXTS's innovation on scatter analysis, image reconstruction and colour x-ray imaging in order to achieve the next step change in XRI technology, with the UK industrial and academic communities firmly at the centre. This will deliver transformative solutions that are practicable in an industrial context and beneficial to a wide user base, while also enabling new science. Our ambition is to replace conventional attenuation based XRI with energy-resolved, phase-based technology combined with scatter retrieval and novel algorithms in most application areas.
People
Prof Sandro Olivo, Academic PI
Prof David Bate, Industrial PI
Prof Simon Arridge, co-I
Prof Ioannis Papakonstantinou, co-I
Dr Charlotte Hagen, co-I
Prof Marco Endrizzi, co-I
Prof Peter Munro, co-I
Dr Daniel Briglin, NXTS researcher
Mr Anton Charman, NXTS researcher
Dr Ian Buchanan, PDRA
Dr Grammatiki Lioliou, PDRA
Dr Tom Partridge
Mr Alessandro Rossi, PhD student
Mr Carlo Peiffer, PhD student
Mr Carlos Navarrete Leon, PhD student
Mr Joel Enwald, PhD student
Mr Kush Shah, PhD student
Associated UCL Researchers
Dr Silvia Cipiccia, Lecturer
Dr Alberto Astolfo, Systems Engineer
Dr Michela Esposito, PDRA
Ms Sumera Rehman, PhD student
Dr Oriol Roche I Morgó, Experimental officer
Dr Adam Doherty, PDRA
Ms Rimcy Palakkappilly Alikunju, PhD student
Mr Glafkos Havariyoun, PhD student
Mr Yunzhe Li, PhD student
Former Members
Dr Martyna Michalska, PDRA
Dr Nargiza Djurabekova, PDRA
Ms Amy Ha, PhD student
Dr Wilf Shorrock, NXTS researcher
Developed Imaging Systems
At Nikon
“NGI” high-energy (up to 160 kVp) x-ray phase contrast system capable of scanning large (~20 x 50 cm2) objects while simultaneously providing attenuation, differential phase and dark field images. It is currently being adapted for CT imaging, and used to test various energy-resolved detector solutions.
At Nikon
“HICF” system – it performs phase CT of large (up to 8 cm diameter) samples in short exposure times (~10’), and was tested “in the field” for intra-operative imaging. Currently being upgraded to reach higher resolutions (10 mm), include cycloidal tomography, and produce dark-field CTs as well.
At UCL
The UCL system upon which the Nikon HICF prototype is based. Source, pre-sample and post sample masks and detector are visible from left to right. The system is flexible and can accommodate different mask types, acquisition geometries, etc.
At UCL
UCL flexible system allowing fast re-configuration to test new source/detector/mask solutions
At UCL
UCL low-energy (8 keV) microscopy system – the beam is propagated from the source at the far end through a vacuum pipe to reduce air attenuation to a high-resolution detector at the other end (not visible in the photo).
Breakthroughs
Thickest x-ray masks to date
Nanoparticles as contrast agents for dark field imaging
Single-shot dark field retrieval
Revealing a new thymus compartment
Micro-CT with adjustable resolution
Reliable phase retrieval at 150 kVp
Dark field microscopy
Femtosecond multimodal imaging
Direct measurement of scattering signals
Phase contrast microtomography in a compact laboratory set-up with two-directional phase sensitivity
Enhanced material discrimination with dark field imaging combined with deep learning
Cycloidal Computed Tomography
Dynamic, Multi-modal Imaging of Additive Manufacturing
Protocols to Support the Development of Regenerative Medicine
Digital Histology of Breast Tumours
Integrating the detector mask into the detector itself
Low-energy x-ray microscopy with user-defined resolution
Robust Phase Integration
High-resolution Single-shot Multimodal X-ray Imaging
Publications
Conference Presentations and Seminars
