Improvement in the performance of the X-ray source based on parametric X-ray radiation using a wedge-shaped target crystal

The properties of parametric X-ray radiation (PXR) emitted from a wedge-shaped Si(111) crystal plate were experimentally investigated using the PXR generator at the Laboratory for Electron Beam Research and Application (LEBRA) of Nihon University. The wedge surface was imposed on a symmetric-cut Si(111) plate and has an asymmetric cut-surface with respect to the (111) crystal planes. As a result of the experiment, it was found that the PXR intensity improved can be obtained suppressing the degradation of the X-ray performance using a wedgeshaped target. With this improvement, phase-contrast images without absorption contrast could be obtained from DEI images taken with the exposure of severalten seconds. The reduction of the exposure time made it possible to carry out a computed tomography (CT) experiment by DEI within a practical machine time, and phase-contrast tomograms of a biological sample were obtained at the PXR energy of 17.5 keV.