An x-ray chopper wheel assembly, and corresponding method, include a chopper wheel having a solid area configured to block x-ray radiation received at a source side of the chopper wheel from an x-ray source. The chopper wheel defines one or more openings configured to pass x-ray radiation from the source side of the chopper wheel to an output side of the chopper wheel. The assembly further includes a source-side scatter plate arranged relative to the chopper wheel with a source-side gap in a range of approximately 0.2 mm to approximately 2.0 mm between the source-side scatter plate and the source side of the chopper wheel. The assembly and method can be used to limit leakage of scattered x-rays from the assembly, such as to safe levels for operation, while being significantly lighter than existing confinement enclosures.

A collimator assembly for an x-ray optical system having a Soller slit for collimation of x-ray radiation with respect to the direction of an axis (z) of the Soller slit, wherein the Soller slit has a plurality of lamellae spaced apart from one another and having lamella planes parallel to one another, is characterized in that the Soller slit comprises a plurality of segments which are arranged along the axis and are separated from one another. The arrangement also has a collimator frame for enclosing and guiding the segments, and at least one of the segments is displaceable with respect to the frame and relative to other segments. A simple but nonetheless accurate adjustment of the spectral resolution of an x-ray spectrometer to a respective different analytical application is thus enabled in a compact and cost-effective manner.

Pulse generators and radiation systems having the same are provided. A pulse generator may include a shielding device and a control device operably connected with the shielding device. The control device may be configured to control the shielding device to intermittently shield radiation emitted from the radiation source to produce pulsed radiation.

The disclosure provides systems and methods for adjusting a multi-leaf collimator (MLC). The MLC includes a plurality of cross-layer leaf pairs each of which includes a first leaf located in a first layer of leaves and a second leaf opposingly located in a second layer of leaves. For at least one cross-layer leaf pair, an effective cross-layer leaf gap to be formed between the first leaf and the second leaf may be determined; at least one of the first leaf or the second leaf may be caused to move to form the effective cross-layer leaf gap; and an in-layer leaf gap may be caused, based on the effective cross-layer leaf gap, to be formed between the first leaf and an opposing first leaf in the first layer. A size of the in-layer leaf gap may be no less than a threshold.

Disclosed herein is an x-ray backscatter apparatus for non-destructive inspection of a part. The apparatus comprises an emission shaping mechanism that is configured to receive an electron emission from a cathode and to adjust a shape of the electron emission from a circular cross-sectional shape into a first elliptical cross-sectional shape. The x-ray source further comprises an anode that is configured to convert the electron emission into an unfiltered x-ray emission having a second elliptical cross-sectional shape. The apparatus also comprises an x-ray filter that comprises an emission aperture having a cross-sectional area smaller than an area of the second elliptical cross-sectional shape of the unfiltered x-ray emission. The x-ray filter is located relative to the unfiltered x-ray emission to allow only a portion of the unfiltered x-ray emission to pass through the emission aperture and form a filtered x-ray emission.

Embodiments of the present disclosure disclose a combined scanning X-ray generator, a composite inspection apparatus and an inspection method. The combined scanning X-ray generator includes: a housing; an anode arranged in the housing, the anode including a first end of the anode and a second end of the anode opposite the first end of the anode; a pencil beam radiation source arranged at the first end of the anode and configured to emit a pencil X-ray beam; and a fan beam radiation source arranged at the second end of the anode and configured to emit a fan X-ray beam; wherein the pencil beam radiation source and the fan beam radiation source are operated independently.

Disclosed herein is an x-ray backscatter apparatus (“apparatus”) for non-destructive inspection of an object. The apparatus includes an x-ray emitter that includes a vacuum tube, an x-ray shield enclosed within the vacuum tube. The x-ray shield includes at least one emission aperture. The apparatus also includes a cathode enclosed within the vacuum tube and that is operable to generate an electron stream. Also included is an anode, enclosed within the vacuum tube and located relative to the cathode, to receive the electron stream and convert the electron stream from the cathode to an x-ray stream, and located relative to the emission aperture to direct at least a portion of the x-ray stream through the at least one emission aperture. Also disclosed are a system and a method that utilize the apparatus.

A mask for use in compressed sensing of incoming radiation, the mask comprising: a body formed of a material that modulates an intensity of incoming radiation of interest. The body has a plurality of mask aperture regions, each comprising at least one mask aperture that allows a higher transmission of the radiation relative to other portions of the respective mask aperture region, the relative transmission being sufficient to allow reconstruction of the compressed sensing measurements; the mask has one or more axes of rotational symmetry with respect to the mask aperture regions; the mask apertures have a shape that provides symmetry after a rotation about the one or more axes of rotational symmetry; and mutual coherence of a sensing matrix generated by the rotation of the respective mask aperture regions is less than one. An imaging system for compressed sensing of incoming radiation comprising such a mask is also provided.

A microelectromechanical device for diffracting optical beams comprises a diffractive element suspended over a channel. The diffractive element is configured to receive an optical beam and diffract and/or transmit the optical beam based on an orientation of the diffractive element. At least one torsional actuator is operatively connected to the diffractive element. The at least one torsional actuator is configured to selectively adjust the orientation of the diffractive element. The diffractive element has a diffractive element resonant frequency that is nearly the same as a resonant frequency of the optical beam.

The present disclosure provides a system and method for X-ray imaging. The method of calculating scatter in an X-ray image may include forming a modulated X-ray image. The method of forming the modulated X-ray image may include acquiring X-rays through a collimator module and an imaged object in sequence to generate an X-ray image group; the acquisition may be performed during a movement of the collimator module in a first direction and the X-ray image group may include a plurality of X-ray images acquired at different times during the movement of the collimator; extracting sub-zones from the plurality of X-ray images in the X-ray image group; combining the sub-zones in the first direction to form the modulated X-ray image. In the present disclosure, an intensity distribution of the X-rays may be adjusted flexibly using a collimator without adding any extra hardware. In addition, scatter components in the X-ray images may be calculated to eliminate the scatter in the X-ray images finally.