Diffraction-enhanced imaging at the UK synchrotron radiation source

Abstract The Diffraction-Enhanced Imaging (DEI) system, which shares access to Beamline 7.6 on the Daresbury Synchrotron Radiation Source (SRS), is now in its third year of existence. The system was developed under a European Commission grant PHase Analyser SYstem (PHASY), won during the Fourth Framework. Typical applications continue to be the imaging of small biological specimens, using a beam of 12–17 keV after monochromation and up to 40 mm in width and 1–2 mm in height, although it is planned to investigate other materials as opportunity permits and time becomes available for more routine scientific use. Recent improvements have been made to the optical alignment procedure for setting up the station before imaging: a small laser device can now be set up to send a beam down the X-ray path through the four crystals, and a small photodiode, which has much better signal-to-noise characteristics than the ion chamber normally used for alignment, has been trailed successfully. A 3-D tomographic reconstruction capability has recently been developed and tested for DEI projection image sets, and will be applied to future imaging work on the SRS, in conjunction with volume visualization software. The next generation of DEI system, planned to operate at up to 60 keV on an SRS wiggler station, is in its design stage; it will feature much improved mechanics and mountings, especially for angular control, and a simplified alignment procedure to facilitate the necessary sharing of the SRS station.