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⇱ A universal moiré effect and application in X-ray phase-contrast imaging | Nature Physics

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Abstract

A moiré pattern results from superimposing two black-and-white or greyscale patterns of regular geometry, such as two sets of evenly spaced lines. Here, we report the observation of an analogous effect with two transparent phase masks put in a light beam. The phase moiré effect and the classic moiré effect are shown to be the two ends of a continuous spectrum. The former allows the detection of sub-resolution intensity or phase patterns with a transparent screen. When applied to X-ray imaging, it enables the realization of a polychromatic far-field interferometer (PFI) without the need for absorption gratings. X-ray interferometry can non-invasively detect refractive index variations inside an object1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10. Current bench-top interferometers operate in the near field with limitations in sensitivity and X-ray dose efficiency2,5,7,8,9,10. The universal moiré effect helps overcome these limitations and obviates the need for using hard X-ray absorption gratings with sub-micrometre periods.

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Figure 1: An example of the phase moiré effect between two transparent phase gratings.
Figure 2: Dependence of the moiré pattern on the inter-grating spacing in the set-up shown in Fig. 1.
Figure 3: The moiré effect among three phase gratings underlies a polychromatic far-field interferometer in this X-ray example.
Figure 4: Experimental data from the X-ray polychromatic far-field interferometer with mismatched grating periods.
Figure 5: Multimodal X-ray projection images of a mouse kidney specimen immersed in water.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to G. Melvin and D. Mazilu for mechanical design and machining, to M. Rivers, Department of Geophysical Sciences and Center for Advanced Radiation Sources, University of Chicago, for his help with the instrument control software. We thank R. Kasica and L. Yu of the Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology, National Institute of Standards and Technology, for their assistance with fabrication.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biophysics and Biochemistry Center, National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA

    Houxun Miao, Alireza Panna, Eric E. Bennett, Sami Znati & Han Wen

  2. Sidney Kimmel Medical College, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19107, USA

    Andrew A. Gomella

  3. Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland 20899, USA

    Lei Chen

Authors
  1. Houxun Miao
  2. Alireza Panna
  3. Andrew A. Gomella
  4. Eric E. Bennett
  5. Sami Znati
  6. Lei Chen
  7. Han Wen

Contributions

H.M., A.P. and H.W. performed the experiments. H.M., L.C. and S.Z. performed fabrication. A.A.G., A.P., E.E.B., H.M. and H.W. built the systems. H.W. and H.M. performed the theoretical modelling and numerical calculations. H.W. and H.M. wrote the manuscript with input from all authors.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Houxun Miao or Han Wen.

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Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Miao, H., Panna, A., Gomella, A. et al. A universal moiré effect and application in X-ray phase-contrast imaging. Nature Phys 12, 830–834 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys3734

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