Spectral x-ray phase contrast imaging for single-shot retrieval of absorption, phase, and differential-phase imagery.

In this Letter, we propose the first single-shot, noninterferometric x-ray imaging method for simultaneous retrieval of absorption, phase, and differential-phase imagery with quantitative accuracy. Our method utilizes a photon-counting spectral x-ray detector in conjunction with a simplified transport-of-intensity equation for coded-aperture phase-contrast imaging to efficiently solve the retrieval problem. This method can utilize an incoherent and polychromatic (clinical or laboratory) x-ray tube and can enable retrieval for a wide range and composition of material properties. The proposed method has been validated via computer simulations and is expected to significantly benefit applications that are sensitive to complexity of measurement, radiation dose and imaging time.