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Spatial resolution and image processing for pinhole camera-based X-ray fluorescence imaging: a simulation study

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Abstract

Spatial resolution and image-processing methods for full-field X-ray fluorescence (FF-XRF) imaging using X-ray pinhole cameras were studied using Geant4 simulations with different geometries and algorithms for image reconstruction. The main objectives were: (1) calculating the quantum efficiency curves of specific cameras, (2) studying the relationships between the spatial resolution and the pinhole diameter, magnification, and camera binning value, and (3) comparing image-processing methods for pinhole camera systems. Several results were obtained using a point and plane source as the X-ray fluorescence emitter and an array of 100 × 100 silicon pixel detectors as the X-ray camera. The quantum efficiency of a back-illuminated deep depletion (BI-DD) structure was above 30% for the XRF energies in the 0.8–9 keV range, with the maximum of 93.7% at 4 keV. The best spatial resolution of the pinhole camera was 24.7 μm and 31.3 lp/mm when measured using the profile function of the point source, with the diameter of 20 μm, magnification of 3.16, and camera bin of 1. A blind deconvolution algorithm with Gaussian filtering performed better than the Wiener filter and Richardson iterative methods on FF-XRF images, with the signal-to-noise ratio of 7.81 dB and improved signal-to-noise ratio of 7.24 dB at the diameter of 120 μm, magnification of 1.0, and camera bin of 1.

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Acknowledgements

We would also like to acknowledge Prof. Zhu An for his valuable suggestions on this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Radiation Physics and Technology of the Ministry of Education, Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610064, China

    Ze He, Ning Huang, Peng Wang, Zi-Han Chen & Bo Peng

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  1. Ze He
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  2. Ning Huang
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  3. Peng Wang
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  4. Zi-Han Chen
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  5. Bo Peng
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Ze He, Ning Huang, Peng Wang, Zihan Chen, and Bo Peng. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Ze He, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Additional information

This work was supported by the Sichuan Science and Technology Program, China (No. 2020ZDZX0004).

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He, Z., Huang, N., Wang, P. et al. Spatial resolution and image processing for pinhole camera-based X-ray fluorescence imaging: a simulation study. NUCL SCI TECH 33, 64 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41365-022-01036-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41365-022-01036-8

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