High-resolution X-ray computed tomography of inhomogeneous materials

In this contribution, high-resolution X-ray computed tomography (XCT) results of various inhomogeneous samples including a poplar wood sample, a carbon fibre reinforced polymer sample and an AlSiCu light metal alloy are presented. These samples have been acquired with a new lab-based nano-XCT device equipped with a nano-focus X-ray tube and two different detector systems. Depending on the material system and the measurement task, the user has to choose between these two detector types that can be exchanged by a quick mounting system. Limitations on resolution and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) are discussed qualitatively and quantitatively for selected measurements and evaluation tasks. Structures between 500 and 700 nm could be clearly resolved. In addition the positioning accuracy of the exchangeable flat panel detector is investigated. Detector repositioning shows high reproducibility, but systematic measurement errors are in the range of half of a voxel for repeated scans of a calibrated ball bar phantom with a system voxel size of (3 µm)³.