Technical features
TomoLab is an X-ray micro-CT laboratory based on a cone-beam geometry.
Two instruments are present in the lab. The first instrument, operational and open to external users since 2005, is equipped with a sealed microfocus X-ray tube, which guarantees a minimum focal spot size of 5 micron, in a voltage range from 40 up to 130 kV, and a maximum power of 39 W. A water cooled CCD camera providing a good combination between a large field of view (49.9 mm×33.2 mm) and a small pixel size (12.5×12.5 micron2) is used as detector. Due to the cone-beam geometry it is possible to achieve a spatial resolution close to the focal spot size. Wilkins & co. in 1996 have shown that radiographs made using the polychromatic beam from a microfocus X-ray generator do reveal phase jumps. Thanks to this property at the TomoLab it is possible to perform phase-contrast microCT measurements (also if a limited phase contrast with respect to a synchrotron X-ray beam could be achieved).
Lead cabinet installed at Elettra in ESP3, ground floor, room 014. Interior of the cabinet: the X-ray source, the sample stage
and the detector are visible.
A second micro-CT scanner has been constructed and open to users for conventional cone-beam geometries. It is presently in the commisisoning phase for unconventioanl geometries such as helical and planar CT ones. The new instrument has beem fully customized and is equipped with a sealed microfocus X-ray tube (maximum voltage = 150 kV, maximum power = 75 W, minimum focal spot = 5 microns). A flat panel detector with a minimum pixel size of 120x120 microns2 and an active area of 265x215 mm2 will be permanently installed in the cabinet. With this detector, micro-CT scans in full field can be acquired in 6 minutes.
The system is fully open and flexible, then other types of available detectors can be employed. The sample stage will allow a flexible acquisition geometry and the possibility to easily allocate large samples and in situ devices.
