Imaging Objects with Coded Apertures, Utilising a Laser Wakefield X-Ray Source

Laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA) (Tajima and Dawson, P Rev Lett 43:267–270, 1979, [1]) is able to generate GeV electrons in millimetres of under dense plasma (Leemans et al., Nat Phys 2:696–699, 2006, [2]) due to the high fields which may be sustained. The electron beam is smaller than those from linear accelerators, and as such these bunches can be used to create hard X-ray imaging sources with micron resolution capability. The conventional pinhole imaging technique results in systems where improved resolution comes at the cost of flux reduction. At low flux, the resultant decrease in signal to noise ratio must be overcome by either a more powerful X-ray source or an increased integration time. Here, coded apertures are proposed as a viable imaging alternative for pinhole apertures without such adjustments. The imaging capabilities of coded apertures will be discussed and simulation results will be presented from ray-tracing algorithms.