Considerations for high-magnification high-cone-angle helical micro-CT

Abstract

This paper is motivated by our groups recent move from a conventional micro-CT system with a circular source- trajectory, to that with with a helical source-trajectory. By using a helix we can now image well beyond the limiting cone-angle of 10 degrees for a circle. We routinely perform micro-CT with cone-angles greater than 50° by using the Katsevich theoretically-exact reconstruction algorithm. Imaging with such large cone-angles enables high-signal-to-noise-ratio imaging but requires the specimen to be in a very close proximity to the source. This brings about its own challenges. Here we present experimental considerations and data post-processing techniques that allow us to obtain high-fidelity high-resolution micro-CT images at extreme cone-angles. Show more