Search

The first new beamline of the BRIGHT project—involving the construction of eight new beamlines at the Australian Synchrotron—is the Micro-Computed Tomography (MCT) beamline. MCT will extend the facility's capability for higher spatial resolution X-ray-computed tomographic imaging allowing for commensurately smaller samples in comparison with the existing Imaging and Medical Beamline (IMBL). The source is a bending-magnet and it is operating in the X-ray energy range from 8 to 40 keV. The beamline provides important new capability for a range of biological and material-science applications. Several imaging modes will be offered such as various X-ray phase-contrast modalities (propagation-based, grating-based, and speckle-based), in addition to conventional absorption contrast. The unique properties of synchrotron radiation sources (high coherence, energy tunability, and high brightness) are predominantly well-suited for producing phase contrast data. An update on the progress of the MCT project in delivering high-spatial-resolution imaging (in the order of micron size) of mm-scale objects will be presented in detail with some imaging results from the hot-commissioning stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last decade ptychography has progressed rapidly from a specialist ultramicroscopy technique into a mature method accessible to non‐expert users. However, to improve scientific value ptychography data must reconstruct reliably, with high image quality and at no cost to other correlative methods. Presented here is the implementation of high‐speed ptychography used at the Australian Synchrotron on the XFM beamline, which includes a free‐run data collection mode where dead time is eliminated and the scan time is optimized. It is shown that free‐run data collection is viable for fast and high‐quality ptychography by demonstrating extremely high data rate acquisition covering areas up to 352 000 µm2 at up to 140 µm2 s−1, with 13× spatial resolution enhancement compared with the beam size. With these improvements, ptychography at velocities up to 250 µm s−1 is approaching speeds compatible with fast‐scanning X‐ray fluorescence microscopy. The combination of these methods provides morphological context for elemental and chemical information, enabling unique scientific outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]