Ionizing
When a sample is placed in one of the interfering beams of the interferometer, a position sensitive detector records a spatial intensity distribution due to the phase variation of the beam across the beam profile and an image is formed. Among other things, this phase variation can be due the distribution of constituent elements, magnetic structure of the sample, stress and dimensional variations. Typically, phase contrast imaging is about two to three orders of magnitude more sensitive than normal radiography. Examples of the use of this technique will be the detection hydrogen in metal, and study of domain structure in ferromagnetic metals.
Phase contrast image of an Al-Cu sample
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Online: November 1998