A Compton scattering image reconstruction algorithm based on total variation minimization

Compton scattering imaging is a novel radiation imaging method using scattered photons. Its main characteristics are detectors that do not have to be on the opposite side of the source, so avoiding the rotation process. The reconstruction problem of Compton scattering imaging is the inverse problem to solve electron densities from nonlinear equations, which is ill-posed. This means the solution exhibits instability and sensitivity to noise or erroneous measurements. Using the theory for reconstruction of sparse images, a reconstruction algorithm based on total variation minimization is proposed. The reconstruction problem is described as an optimization problem with nonlinear data-consistency constraint. The simulated results show that the proposed algorithm could reduce reconstruction error and improve image quality, especially when there are not enough measurements.