Publication | Open Access
A Condenser Scanner for Artifact-Free, Large Field of View, Full-Field X-ray Microscopy at Synchrotrons
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2011
Year
EngineeringMicroscopyImage UniformityStationary CondenserSparse ImagingSynchrotron Radiation SourceCondenser ScannerX-ray ImagingSynchrotron Radiation ResearchMicroscopy MethodComputational ImagingInstrumentationLight MicroscopyRadiation ImagingRadiologyHealth SciencesFull-field X-ray MicroscopyLight Field ImagingMedical ImagingPhysicsOphthalmologyOptical System AlignmentSynchrotron RadiationComputational Optical ImagingX-ray Free-electron LaserLarge FieldMicroscope Image ProcessingApplied PhysicsBiomedical ImagingImagingX-ray Optic
Most full‐field microscopes at synchrotrons exhibit a highly peaked illumination in the center of the field of view for stationary condenser and objective optics. This illumination pattern is typically reference‐corrected by division with an image without the sample to correct for the uneven illumination. However, this correction does not rectify problems such as the poor signal‐to‐noise ratio away from the center and the variation in image quality across the field of view due to the unbalanced illumination. These non‐uniformity issues affect imaging strategies that stitch several fields of view together as is needed for large samples. We present the implementation of a condenser scanner that time‐averages the illumination on the sample, leading to vastly improved image uniformity and the avoidance of image artifacts.