Optimization and Simulation of Phase Contrast Imaging

A simulation method is proposed to verify and optimize the critical parameters for hard X-ray in-line phase contrast imaging (PCI) implemented based on the Fresnel-Kirchhoff diffraction theory. This method computes the object transmission function in terms of the refraction index by the ray-tracing approach firstly. Then the free propagation is calculated between the object and the image plane. The empirical point spread function is applied to simulate the actual resolution of the image plane. We contribute to develop a system with GUI to choose the critical parameters for the optimal imaging including the imaging distance and X-ray energy. The various experiment results demonstrate that our method is effective to simulate the process of phase contrast imaging for the ideal thin objects.