1-micrometer X-ray Detector

We are developing a detector for hard x-rays with a resolution of one micrometer, based on a silicon detector with very fine pitch (around 10 μm) together with a charge-cloud fitting method that allows us to determine the centroid of the charge cloud generated by each interaction with micrometer resolution. Not only can this detector make medical x-ray imaging with orders of magnitude higher resolution than today possible, but it will also allow direct measurement of interference patterns and thereby enable dose-efficient phase-contrast x-ray imaging where the phase of the transmitted x-ray waves are measured in addition to the amplitude. The combination of micrometer resolution and the new tissue information provided by the phase contrast has the potential to be a game changer in the field of medical imaging, and our long-term goal is to replace a large number of risky, costly and painful invasive tissue sampling procedures with "virtual biopsies" based on high-resolution phase contrast x-ray imaging.