Demonstration of X-Ray Talbot Interferometry

TLDR

The authors aligned two gold‑stripe transmission gratings on the X‑ray optical axis with a Talbot‑effect separation to generate moiré fringes, detected a phase object placed before the first grating via fringe bending, and used phase‑shifting interferometry to measure the resulting differential phase. First hard‑X‑ray Talbot interferometry was demonstrated using gold‑stripe gratings, indicating that this technique offers a novel and simple phase‑sensitive X‑ray radiography method.

Abstract

First Talbot interferometry in the hard X-ray region was demonstrated using a pair of transmission gratings made by forming gold stripes on glass plates. By aligning the gratings on the optical axis of X-rays with a separation that caused the Talbot effect by the first grating, moiré fringes were produced inclining one grating slightly against the other around the optical axis. A phase object placed in front of the first grating was detected by moiré-fringe bending. Using the technique of phase-shifting interferometry, the differential phase corresponding to the phase object could also be measured. This result suggests that X-ray Talbot interferometry is a novel and simple method for phase-sensitive X-ray radiography.