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By using the time-division multiplexing characteristics of the projector and the integral exposure characteristics of the charge coupled device (CCD) camera, a super-grayscale and real-time computer-generated Moiré profilometry based on video grating projection is proposed. The traditional digital static grating is of 256-grayscale at most. If an expected super-grayscale grating with a maximum grayscale of 766 is designed and divided into three 256-grayscale fringe patterns with balanced grayscale as far as possible, they can be synthesized into a repeated playing video grating instead of the traditional static grating. When the video grating is projected onto the measured object, as long as the exposure time is set to three times the refresh cycle of the video grating, the super-grayscale deformed patterns in the 766-grayscale can be captured with a 10-bit CCD camera, so that the deformed patterns are realistic. The digital error in computer-generated Moiré profilometry is effectively reduced. In addition, this method can expand the linear range of the deformed pattern by 20% in computer Moiré profilometry. Therefore, the proposed method has the perspectives of high accuracy and real-time measurement. Theoretical analysis and experimental results demonstrate the validity and capability of the proposed method.

The effectiveness of sparse coding for image inpainting and denoising of off-axis electron holograms was examined computationally based on hologram simulations according to considerations of two types of electron detectors, namely charge-coupled device (CCD) and direct-detection device (DDD) cameras. In this simulation, we used a simple-phase object with a phase step such as a semiconductor p–n junction and assumed that the holograms recorded by the CCD camera include shot noise, dark-current noise and read-out noise, while those recorded by the DDD camera include only shot noise. Simulated holograms with various electron doses were sparsely coded. Even though interference fringes cannot be recognized in the simulated CCD and DDD holograms when subjected to electron doses (per pixel) equal to 1 and 0.01, respectively, both the corresponding sparse-coded holograms exhibit meaningful interference fringes. We demonstrate that a combination of the DDD camera and sparse coding reduces the requisite dose used to obtain holograms to values less than one-thousandth compared with the CCD camera without image postprocessing. This combination is expected to generate lower-dose and/or higher-speed electron holography.

Comparing with the application of charge coupled device (CCD) sensor, a kind of interference stripe noise (ISN) can be observed easily from the complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) sensor-based digital holographic measurement (DHM) system because a series of optic coatings and filters are used in front of that sensor in order to improve its imaging effect. The improper assembly or the micro manufacturing error of these optic components may create the unexpected interference phenomena in the imaging sensor. To reduce that noise, an effective image processing method is developed. On one hand the Laplacian pyramid method is used to highlight the ISN and a cartoon-texture decomposition technique is carried out to remove the additive ISN. On the other hand, an improved Lee filtering is performed to restrain the multiplicative ISN. Extensive experiment results have shown that the image quality can be improved after the ISN reduction and this method is fit for solving a deionized water temperature estimation application where the texture complexity of target image is relatively low.

U.S. Navy research on extremely low-light (ELL) cameras in nighttime underwater operations is limited. This study aims to address this limitation in capability by quantifying the Teledyne Bowtech Limited Explorer Pro Low Light Monochrome Camera’s performance in the field as a function of water depth at night in the coastal ocean. To reach this goal, proven techniques like modulation transfer function (MTF) and contrast transfer function (CTF) analyses were applied to modified target patterns for lower-quality images. The new target pattern was tested on land using commercial cameras against a commercial test pattern chart for high-resolution cameras. The ELL camera vertical casts, including measures of surface lux and the water column characteristics, were performed at California’s Monterey Harbor and Bay in the presence of bioluminescence. The MTF results from the target pattern showed a steady MTF as the spatial frequency increased; the MTF decayed with increasing depth and decreasing lux. Furthermore, the MTFs showed that bioluminescence improves the MTF at depths > 24.5 m versus the MTF with no bioluminescence. The target pattern was detected at a maximum depth of 37 m. However, predicted maximum depths using a linear regression model were > 37 m with and without bioluminescence. The new ideal target pattern for the ELL video camera provides a foundation for nighttime underwater operations and the future development of underwater night vision goggles for the U.S. Navy. Office of Naval Research (Arlington, VA 22203-1995) Lieutenant Commander, United States Navy Approved for public release. Distribution is unlimited.

The availability of portable analytical devices for on-site monitoring and rapid detection of analytes of forensic, environmental, and clinical interest is vital. We report the development of a portable device for the detection of biochemiluminescence relying on silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) technology, called LuminoSiPM, which includes a 3D printed sample holder that can be adapted for both liquid samples and paper-based biosensing. We performed a comparison of analytical performance in terms of detectability with a benchtop luminometer, a portable cooled charge-coupled device (CCD sensor), and smartphone-integrated complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) sensors. As model systems, we used two luciferase/luciferin systems emitting at different wavelengths using purified protein solutions: the green-emitting P. pyralis mutant Ppy-GR-TS (λmax 550 nm) and the blue-emitting NanoLuc (λmax 460 nm). A limit of detection of 9 femtomoles was obtained for NanoLuc luciferase, about 2 and 3 orders of magnitude lower than that obtained with the portable CCD camera and with the smartphone, respectively. A proof-of-principle forensic application of LuminoSiPM is provided, exploiting an origami chemiluminescent paper-based sensor for acetylcholinesterase inhibitors, showing high potential for this portable low-cost device for on-site applications with adequate sensitivity for detecting low light intensities in critical fields.

A unique focused laser differential interferometry (FLDI) configuration designed to work with contoured windows was developed for use with the Boeing/U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research Ma...

The X-ray free-electron lasers that became available during the last decade, like the European XFEL (EuXFEL), place high demands on their instrumentation. Especially at low photon energies below $1\,\text{keV}$, detectors with high sensitivity, and consequently low noise and high quantum efficiency, are required to enable facility users to fully exploit the scientific potential of the photon source. A 1-Megapixel pnCCD detector with a $1024\times 1024$ pixel format has been installed and commissioned for imaging applications at the Nano-Sized Quantum System (NQS) station of the Small Quantum System (SQS) instrument at EuXFEL. The instrument is currently operating in the energy range between $0.5$ and $3\,\text{keV}$ and the NQS station is designed for investigations of the interaction of intense FEL pulses with clusters, nano-particles and small bio-molecules, by combining photo-ion and photo-electron spectroscopy with coherent diffraction imaging techniques. The core of the imaging detector is a pn-type charge coupled device (pnCCD) with a pixel pitch of $75\,\mu\text{m}\times 75\,\mu\text{m}$. Depending on the experimental scenario, the pnCCD enables imaging of single photons thanks to its very low electronic noise of $3$e$^-$ and high quantum efficiency. Here we present an overview on the EuXFEL pnCCD detector and the results from the commissioning and first user operation at the SQS experiment in June 2019. The detailed descriptions of the detector design and capabilities, its implementation at EuXFEL both mechanically and from the controls side as well as important data correction steps aim to provide useful background for users planning and analyzing experiments at EuXFEL and may serve as a benchmark for comparing and planning future endstations at other FELs., Comment: 10 pages, 10 figures, submitted to the Journal of Synchrotron Radiation

Unfortunately, the plastic pollution increases at an exponential rate and drastically endangers the marine ecosystem. According to World Health Organization (WHO), microplastics in drinking water have become a concern and may be a risk to human health. One of the major efforts to fight against this problem is developing easy-to-use, low-cost, portable microplastic detection systems. To address this issue, here, we present our prototype device based on an optical system that can help detect the microplastics in water. This system that costs less than $370 is essentially a low-cost Raman spectrometer. It includes a collimated laser (5 mW), a sample holder, a notch filter, a diffraction grating, and a CCD sensor all integrated in a 3D printed case. Our experiments show that our system is capable of detecting microplastics in water having a concentration less than 0.015% w/v. We believe that the designed portable device can find a widespread use all over the world to monitor the microplastic content in an easier and cost-effective manner.

The pinhole runner is the key component of the optical-path automatic calibration system of an experimental device, and the repeated positioning accuracy is one of its important indexes. In order to effectively measure the repeated positioning accuracy of the pinhole runner in vacuum environment, a measurement method based on the combination of laser and charge coupled device (CCD) was proposed, and the position repeatability of laser spot center of runner filtering pinhole was taken as the evaluation index of its repeated positioning accuracy. A complete set of measurement system was built, the laser spot filtered through the runner filtering pinhole was collected by CCD, and the laser spot image was preprocessed by the image processing methods, such as filtering and noise reduction, threshold segmentation, binarization and edge detection. The least square method was used for circle fitting of the laser spot, and the center coordinates of laser spot were obtained. Compared with laser interferometer in non- vacuum environment, the angular deviation between them was only 11″, which showed that the measurement method had high accuracy and met the measurement requirements. Finally, the repeatability measurement of the pinhole runner in vacuum environment was carried out for about 60 times forward and backward reciprocation in about 6 hours. The results show that the method can effectively measure the repeated positioning accuracy of the pinhole runner in vacuum environment.

The existence of foreign objects in crystal-clear water in beverage industries may cause major safety and health issues. The current observation of solid contamination such as X-ray and metal detector involves hazardous radiation. Some of the sensors applied intrusive and invasive techniques. This may cause the instability of the process flow. Therefore, this paper aims to develop a noninvasive and nonintrusive charge-coupled device optical tomography (CCD OPT) system to detect solid contamination in crystal-clear water. Investigations on three different opacity levels of objects, opaque, translucent, and transparent, are involved. The first experiment investigates the velocity and acceleration of the free-falling object. It is conducted to validate the accuracy of the system to detect the appearance of foreign object. The experiment result indicated that the system reached 82% accuracy. The second experiment reconstructs cross-sectional image of the process flow. The image reconstruction results are analyzed using the area error (AE) method. The image reconstruction AE range is between 0.0372 and 0.7269. The AE results show that the system has the capability to detect different opacity of objects which exist in crystal-clear water. Both experiments prove that the CCD OPT system is able to detect solid contamination in crystal-clear water.

Digital X-ray detectors are required in different sciences and applications, however many high quality devices are expensive although high-resolution images are not always required. We present an easy way to build a detector capable of forming X-ray digital images and video with a very large area (18×18 cm2). The detector is formed by three main components: scintillator, optics lenses and CCD sensor. Basically, the device converts the X-rays into visible light which is then collected by the CCD sensor. The scintillator is Gadox type, from Carestream®, 18×18 cm2, regular type, lambda 547 nm. The optics lenses are generic, with manual focus and widely visual field. The CCD sensor has a size of 1/3″, 752 × 582 pixels, monochrome, 20 FPS, 12 bits ADC and pixel size of 3.8 μm. With the built detector and an X-ray source, we formed an X-ray imaging detection system to generate digital radiographs of biological or inert objects-examples are given-, as well as real-time X-ray video. Additionally, the spatial resolution limit was measured in terms of Modulation Transfer Function by the method of opaque edge from a lead sheet with a result of 1.1 Lp/mm. Finally using a filter, the focal spot of the X-ray source is measured, resulting in a diameter of 0.9 mm (FWHM).

In this study, a two-dimensional model describing thermal stress on a charge-coupled device (CCD) induced by ms laser pulses was examined. Considering the nonlinearity of the CCD’s material parameters and the melting phase transition process of aluminum electrode materials was considered by using equivalent specific heat capacity method, the physical process where a laser pulse irradiating a CCD pixel array was simulated using COMSOL Multiphysics software. The temperature field and thermal stress field were calculated and analyzed. In order to clarify the mechanism producing damage on the CCD detector, Raman spectra from silicon were measured with a micro-Raman spectrometer to determine stress change in the CCD chip. The procedure presented herein illustrates a method for evaluating strain in a CCD after laser irradiation.

This paper focuses on how to see through the melting behavior of solid iron tailings in molten blast furnace slag and take a new non-contact visual analytical method to predict its melting law. The optimized convolution neural network (CNN) is used to track the moving target in charge coupled device (CCD) camera system efficiently and accurately, and the melting behavior of SiO2 is described by coordinate translation transformation theory. Hierarchical agglomerative clustering (HAC) and delaunay triangulation were used to extract the characteristic parameters of the melting process of SiO2. The prediction model of the melting rate of SiO2 at high temperature was established by least square fitting (LSF) and dimensional analysis, and compared with the actual melting rate of SiO2 obtained by experiments. The results show that the melting characteristics of SiO2 at high temperature are in accordance with certain function rule. The performance of optimized CNN in terms of processing time and the accuracy are significantly improved, and the fusion rate prediction model of SiO2 is verified by 100% accuracy. It provides theoretical support and model basis for the improvement of slag cotton preparation technology.

Abstract An open hardware design and implementation for a transient absorption spectrometer are presented that has microsecond time resolution and measures full difference spectra in the visible spectral region from 380 to 750 nm. The instrument has been designed to allow transient absorption spectroscopy measurements of either low or high quantum yield processes by combining intense sub-microsecond excitation flashes using a xenon lamp together with stroboscopic non-actinic white light probing using LED sources driven under high pulsed current from a capacitor bank. The instrument is sensitive to resolve 0.15 mOD flash-induced differences within 1000 measurements at 20 Hz repetition rate using an inexpensive CCD sensor with 200 μm pixel dimension, 40 K electrons full well capacity and a dynamic range of 1800. The excitation flash has 230 ns pulse duration and the 2 mJ flash energy allows spectral filtering while retaining high power density with focussing to generate mOD signals in the 10–4–10–1 ΔOD range. We present the full electronics design and construction of the flash and probe sources, the optics as well as the timing electronics and CCD spectrometer operation and modification for internal signal referencing. The performance characterisation and example measurements are demonstrated using microsecond TAS of Congo red dye, as an example of a low quantum yield photoreaction at 2% with up to 78% of molecules excited. The instrument is fully open hardware and combines inexpensive selection of commercial components, optics and electronics and allows linear response measurements of photoinduced reactions for the purpose of accurate global analysis of chemical dynamics. Graphical abstract

Recent developments in luminescence dating offer new ways to date exposure and burial durations of rocks. The new rock surface dating methods ideally require high-resolution data, faster sample preparation and measurement times, and field screening methods to select samples with appropriate luminescence characteristics and bleaching histories. Presented here is a demonstration of an EMCCD (electron multiplying charge coupled device) based system capable of imaging high-resolution Infrared stimulated luminescence (IRSL) and Infrared-photoluminescence (IRPL) from rock samples. The IRPL can be detected at both 880 nm and 955 nm. Using this instrument, the entire luminescence-depth profile can be reconstructed by imaging a single surface cut perpendicular to the exposed rock face. We demonstrate the possibility of reconstructing luminescence-depth profiles suitable for rock surface dating from large (cm-scale) rock samples, without using a regeneration dose for normalisation of the natural luminescence signals. Based on the different bleaching characteristics of the IRSL and IRPL emissions at 880 nm and 955 nm, we show that it is possible to gain reliable estimates of bleaching depths from measurement of as few as two images of the IRPL signal (one for each emission), or from measurement of the IRSL decay curve. We thus by-pass laborious sample preparations and the need for a gamma source to estimate the bleaching depth, thereby extending the 2D luminescence-depth profile imaging technique to other laboratories that lack access to ionising radiation facilities. This study also makes a significant progression towards development of a field instrument for in-situ relative exposure dating, and sample screening for rock surface burial dating.

The purpose of this study was to develop a period analysis algorithm for detecting new variable stars in the time-series data observed by charge coupled device (CCD). We used the data from a variable star monitoring program of the CBNUO. The R filter data of some magnetic cataclysmic variables observed for more than 20 days were chosen to achieve good statistical results. World Coordinate System (WCS) Tools was used to correct the rotation of the observed images and assign the same IDs to the stars included in the analyzed areas. The developed algorithm was applied to the data of DO Dra, TT Ari, RXSJ1803, and MU Cam. In these fields, we found 13 variable stars, five of which were new variable stars not previously reported. Our period analysis algorithm were tested in the case of observation data mixed with various fields of view because the observations were carried with 2K CCD as well as 4K CCD at the CBNUO. Our results show that variable stars can be detected using our algorithm even with observational data for which the field of view has changed. Our algorithm is useful to detect new variable stars and analyze them based on existing time-series data. The developed algorithm can play an important role as a recycling technique for used data

Soft X-ray telescope (SXT) built on the principle of grazing incidence optics was launched on-board AstroSat on September 28, 2015, and made operational on October 26, 2015. The telescope optics consists of two conical sections of approximate paraboloid and hyperboloid mirror segments arranged in Wolter type-I design. It comprises a total of 320 mirror segments made from aluminum foil of 0.2 mm thickness coated with gold on the front (reflective) side by the replication process that was first used in the Suzaku Observatory. The mirrors focus X-rays in the energy range of 0.3–8.0 keV on to a charged coupled device-based focal plane camera assembly at a distance of 2 m. We present here the pre-launch, ground-based calibration, and evaluation of SXT optics carried out at the X-ray Optics Laboratory at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. The SXT optics assembly was calibrated and evaluated experimentally, using scans by a collimated optical beam from a laser source, as well as using a full-aperture optical beam from an inverse telescope. A collimated beam of a red laser source was used to ensure the accuracy of mounting of individual mirror segments and the full aperture beam white light-emitting diode (LED) source was used to estimate the point spread function (PSF) of all 320 mirrors together. The approximate PSF obtained during the ground calibration was around 136.6 arcsec. These results were in accordance with the results obtained during the in-orbit calibration post launch.

The ability to engineer the properties of quantum optical states is essential for quantum information processing applications. Here, we demonstrate tunable control of spatial correlations between photon pairs produced by spontaneous parametric down-conversion, and measure them using an electron multiplying charge coupled device (EMCCD) camera. By shaping the spatial pump beam profile in a type-I collinear configuration, we tailor the spatial structure of coincidences between photon pairs entangled in high dimensions without effect on intensity. The results highlight fundamental aspects of spatial coherence and hold potential for the development of quantum technologies based on high-dimensional spatial entanglement.

This paper presents the development of a hardware/software system for the characterization of the electronic response of optical (camera) sensors such as matrix and linear color and monochrome Charge Coupled Device (CCD) or Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS). The electronic response of a sensor is required for inspection purposes. It also allows the design and calibration of the integrating device to achieve the desired performance. The proposed instrument equipment fulfills the most recent European Machine Vision Association (EMVA) 1288 standard ver. 3.1: the spatial non uniformity of the illumination ΔE must be under 3%, and the sensor must achieve an f-number of 8.0 concerning the light source. The following main innovations have achieved this: an Ulbricht sphere providing a uniform light distribution (irradiation) of 99.54%, an innovative illuminator with proper positioning of color Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) and control electronics, and a flexible C# program to analyze the sensor parameters, namely Quantum Efficiency, Overall System Gain, Temporal Dark Noise, Dark Signal Non Uniformity (DSNU1288), Photo Response Non-Uniformity (PRNU1288), Maximum achievable Signal to Noise Ratio (SNRmax), Absolute sensitivity threshold, Saturation Capacity, Dynamic Range, and Dark Current. This new instrument has allowed a camera manufacturer to design, integrate, and inspect numerous devices and camera models (Necta, Celera, and Aria).

High control bandwidth is usually restricted in a finite sampling rate of a charge-coupled device (CCD)-based tracking loop, which hinders a good closed-loop performance. Conventionally, a rate feedforward controller is usually used to improve the control performance; however, it is restricted by the line-of-sight (LOS) rate, which is required to be estimated due to only the LOS error available in the CCD-based tracking control system. Besides that, it is also affected by the inverse of the control model. A new error-based feedforward (EBF) control mode is proposed to overcome these difficulties. Due to being plugged into an existing feedback control loop, the closed-loop performance of the CCD-based control system can be minimized by optimizing a Q-filter. The closed-loop stability and robustness with this EBF control system are investigated on the condition of the gain margin and the phase margin of the open-loop transfer function. Furthermore, this paper proposes a new criterion to enhance the robustness of the EBF control system and reveals the sensitivity function property. Because of not being restricted by an accurate model, this new feedforward controller cannot lead to a compromise between error attenuation and noise propagation in the control loop. Simulations and experiments are both used to testify the effectiveness of the improved control mode.

Charge coupled devices (CCDs), often used for scientific imaging and photography, conventionally comprise an active inorganic semiconductor such as silicon. Organic semiconductors, however, are typ...

After first lasing on 14 June 2016 of X-ray Free Electron Laser facility at Pohang Accelerator Laboratory (PAL-XFEL), various experiments using hard X-ray have been done using Multi-Port Charge-Coupled Device detector (MPCCD). To achieve time-resolved analysis, either the timestamp or pulse-ID tagging to the data generated from detectors is a key ingredient. For this we established the hardware interfaces including MPCCD software to synchronize PAL-XFEL event timing system. In this paper, the developed data acquisition system (DAQ) of the MPCCD is introduced including the event timing system and timestamp or pulse-ID, and the data frameworks of the PAL-XFEL.

This study investigates the potential of laser light backscattering imaging (LLBI) for predicting and classifying Musa Acuminata cv. Berangan at different ripening stages. Backscattering images of Berangan bananas at various ripening stages from 2 to 7 were acquired by a charge coupled device (CCD) camera coupled with a laser diode emitting light at a wavelength of 658 nm. The grey level intensity and the size of the backscattering area were extracted from the backscattering images and used as parameters for estimating the quality properties of the bananas. The results showed strong correlation between the LLBI parameters and the colour of the bananas as well as the total soluble solids content (TSS) with a coefficient of determination (R2) of over 0.70. Statistical analysis using Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) successfully classified the samples into their ripening stages accordingly with the percentage of correct classification up to 94.2%. Thus, it can be concluded that the LLBI could potentially be used for predicting and classifying the ripening stages of bananas and be further developed for an automated quality control system.

The Spectrum-Roentgen-Gamma satellite with the extended roentgen survey with an imaging telescope array (eROSITA) x-ray telescope as scientific payload was successfully launched on July 13, 2019 and deployed in a 6-month halo orbit around the second Lagrange point of the Sun–Earth system. The telescope comprises an array of seven mirror systems with seven focal plane cameras. The spectroscopic CCD cameras are a further development of the very successful EPIC-PN camera on the XMM-Newton satellite, which is still operating after more than 20 years in space. The key component of the camera is the detector, which matches the large field of view of 1 deg to permit an all-sky survey in the energy range from 0.2 to 8 keV with state-of-the-art energy resolution. The image area of the PN-junction charge coupled device comprises 384 × 384 pixels. The pixel size of 75 × 75 μm2 each matches the angular resolution of the mirror system. Readout of the full frame is achieved in 9.18 ms but for thermal and onboard event preprocessing reasons, the time resolution is slowed down to 50 ms. The photon entrance window of five of the seven CCDs is equipped with an optical blocking filter, which proved to be advantageous. The improved concept and design of the eROSITA cameras will be explained as well as their operation and performance in space.

The directional polarimetric camera (DPC) is a space-borne polarimetric sensor which has the characteristics of ultra-wide angle and low-distortion imaging. The charge coupled device (CCD) detector is the core component of the photoelectric conversation for DPC which is used to obtain multi-angle, multi-spectrum polarization information, so it is necessary to measure its electric-optical performance comprehensively before installed in the DPC. Instrumentation is proposed and developed with the aim to evaluate the electro-optical performance of array CCD. The instrument mainly consists of light source subsystem, detector imaging subsystem and detector refrigeration subsystem with the structure of optical-mechanical-electric integration. The photoelectric response performance and the spectral characteristics of the detector are comprehensively and quantitatively tested and analyzed. The key parameters, such as quantum efficiency, dark current, full well capacity and system gain are measured; the spectrum response of the detector is measured from 400 nm to 940 nm with the spectral resolution around 1 nm. The experimental results show that the CCD used for DPC has no defective pixels, the system gain is 0.0245DN/e−, the full well charge is 138.8ke−/pixel, the dark current is 990.5e−/pixel/s when the detector works at 6 °C. The photo response non-uniformity under different wavelengths is better than 3% and the linearity error under different wavelengths is less than 1%. The quantum efficiency has a strong dependence on temperature in the near-infrared band, the maximum fluctuation of QE in 865 nm and 910 nm is 5.84% and 6.65%, respectively, in the temperature range from 0 °C to 20 °C. The Instrumentation can be used in the screening and testing the electro-optical performance of scientific grade CCD.

The skipper CCD is a special type of charge coupled device in which the readout noise can be reduced to sub-electron levels by averaging independent measurements of the same charge. Thus the charge in the pixels can be determined by counting the exact number of electrons. The total readout time is proportional to the number of measurements of the charge in each pixel. For some applications this time may be too long; however, researchers usually are interested only on certain region within the matrix of pixels. In this paper we present the development of a smart skipper readout technique that allows the user to specify regions of interest of the CCD matrix where an arbitrary (high) number of measurements of the same charge can taken to obtain the desired noise level, and far less measurements are performed in those regions that are less interesting to the researcher, therefore reducing the total readout time.

Background The structural changes of gastric mucosa are considered as an important window of early gastric lesions. This article shows an imaging method of the stomach that does not use imaging agents. X-ray phase-contrast images of different stages of gastric development were taken using micrometer level X-ray in-line phase-contrast imaging (XILPCI) technique on synchrotron radiation facility. The aim of the study was to demonstrate that the imaging technique is an appropriate method for micron imaging of the gastric structures. Methods The stomachs of 4-, 6- and 12-week-old rats were removed and cleaned. XILPCI has 1000 times greater soft tissue contrast than that of X-ray traditional absorption radiography. The projection images of the rats stomachs were recorded by an XILPCI charge coupled device (CCD) at 9-μm image resolution. Results The X-ray in-line phase-contrast images of the different stages of rats’ gastric specimens clearly showed the gastric architectures and the details of the gastro-duodenal region. 3-dimensional (3D) stomach anatomical structure images were reconstruction. Conclusion The reconstructed gastric 3D images can clearly display the internal structure of the stomach. XILPCI may be a useful method for medical research in the future.