Frontiers in X-ray Imaging - Applications of Photon Counting Spectral Detectors (Medipix)

Photon counting spectral detectors which can allow separation of photons by their energy and/or time of arrival may have significant applications in medical and biological imaging. Some obvious applications can be "color x-ray imaging" and material decomposition techniques to obtain quantitative maps of chemical or biological compositions. Our group has pioneered the applications of these detectors in more challenging imaging scenarios. This includes extracting phase changes of x-rays as they propagate through objects. These phase retrieval methods aided by spectral detectors have the potential to combine multiple contrast features in a single, low dose acquisition. I will describe these general concepts as well as our ongoing work with PCDs, in particular those developed by the CERN based Medipix collaboration.