X-ray micromodulated luminescence tomography in dual-cone geometry.

We propose a scanning method utilizing dual-cone beams of x-rays to induce luminescence from nanophosphors and reconstruct the three-dimensional distribution of these particles in a biological sample or a small animal. For this purpose, x-rays are focused through a polycapillary lens onto a spot of a few micrometers in size. Such x-ray scanning can be point-wise performed to acquire photon emission data on an object surface. The x-ray-induced luminescence data allow for reliable image reconstruction with high spatial resolution and large imaging depth. We describe several numerical simulation studies to demonstrate the feasibility and merits of the proposed approach.