Diffraction Contrast Tomography: Unlocking Crystallographic Information from X-Ray Microscopy

X-ray tomography has operated under two primary contrast mechanisms for some time: X-ray absorption and phase contrast, which both rely on material density differences within the sample. However, single-phase polycrystalline materials (e.g. steels, alloys, etc.) do not exhibit any significant contrast using absorption or phase mechanisms. Synchrotron-based XRM has demonstrated results in this area for about a decade with diffraction contrast tomography (DCT), which provides crystallographic/diffraction information from polycrystalline samples, non- destructively, in 3D. Now, advancing laboratory X-ray microscopy (XRM) one step further, ZEISS describes the capabilities of laboratory- based DCT on the ZEISS Xradia 620 Versa 3D X-ray microscope, and the new research and characterization capabilities this enables.