Preliminary demonstration of flexible dual-energy X-ray phase-contrast imaging

Currently, dual-energy X-ray phase contrast imaging is usually conducted with an X-ray Talbot-Lau interferometer. However, in this system, the two adopted energy spectra have to be chosen carefully in order to match well with the phase grating. For example, the accelerating voltages of the X-ray tube are supposed to be respectively set as 40 kV and 70 kV, with other energy spectra being practically unusable for dual energy imaging. This system thus has low flexibility and maneuverability in practical applications. In this work, dual energy X-ray phase-contrast imaging is performed in a grating-based non-interferometric imaging system rather than in a Talbot-Lau interferometer. The advantage of this system is that, theoretically speaking, any two separated energy spectra can be utilized to perform dual energy X-ray phase-contrast imaging. The preliminary experimental results show that dual-energy X-ray phase contrast imaging is successfully performed when the accelerating voltages of the X-ray tube are successively set as 40 kV and 50 kV. Our work increases the flexibility and maneuverability when employing dual-energy X-ray phase-contrast imaging in medical diagnoses and nondestructive tests.