A new imaging technology based on Scattering Compton X-ray Microscopy

We describe a feasible implementation of a cellular microscope based on Compton X-ray scattering. The device, consisting largely of a 25 cm-thick sensitive volume filled with xenon at atmospheric pressure, forms photoelectron images by resorting to the electroluminescence produced in a custom multi-hole acrylic structure. Photon-by-photon counting can be achieved by processing the resulting images, taken in a continuous readout mode. The concept is amenable to permanent on-site $4\pi$-coverage stations, but can be made portable at an acceptable performance compromise, targeting a nearly $2\pi$-coverage instead. Based on Geant4 simulations, and a realistic detector design and response, we show that photon rates up to around $10^{11}$ ph/s on-sample ($5~{\mu}$m water-equivalent cell) can be processed, limited by the spatial diffusion of the photoelectrons in the gas. Following the Rose criterion and assuming the dose partitioning theorem, such a detector would allow obtaining 3d images of $5 {\mu}$m unstained cells in their native environment in about 20 h, with a resolution below 40 nm.