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A laboratory-scale hard X-ray microscope utilizing the portable synchrotron named MIRRORCLE-6X is developed in our laboratory. MIRRORCLE-6X is a X-ray source suitable for hard X-ray microscopy as a result of the X-ray source size of the order of micron, and highly brilliant hard X-rays. Furthermore, when effective focusing elements of hard X-rays are used for MIRRORCLE-6X, this machine could be used for non destructive inspection with high resolution of biological and engineering. We designed hard X-ray optical elements for MIRRORCLE6X and started fabricating X-ray mirrors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Monochromatic x-ray CT at two different energies provides information about electron density without ambiguity due to the beam hardening effect. This information makes the treatment planning for heavy-ion radiotherapy more precise. We have started a feasibility study on the dual-energy x-ray CT by using synchrotron radiation. We developed a linear scanning CT system in order to evaluate what precision in the measurement was achieved. The experiments were carried out using monochromatic x-rays of 40, 70 and 80 key. Comparison of measured electron densities with the theoretical values proved that these values were in agreement in 0.9 % on average. We have developed a 2D-CT system with a two-dimensional scintillator array to take images in a short time. At present, it has been proved that the electron density is measured in the precision of about 1% with the 2D-CT system. Effective atomic numbers are obtained as well from the dual-energy x-ray CT. The CT images are reconstructed based on each of the electron density and the effective atomic number. They present different features of an object, and the contrasts in the images differ from that in a conventional CT image. The feature of the images may help distinguish more clearly tissues or organs with aid of different contrast from the conventional CT images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Protein crystallography beam line using MIRRORCLE-6X, which is a compact synchrotron for hard x-ray production, is under construction. Since MIRRORCLE-6X provides hard x-ray with high brightness, it is suitable for x-ray source of accurate protein crystallography research in a small laboratory. The divergent x-ray emitted from a target is focused by a condensing minor. The minors used for the condensing minor are a multi layer minor of Wolter type and a rotating ellipsoidal minor. Photon energies dispersed by them are set to the K-edge of Zn and of Se, respectively. The flux at a focusing point is expected to be 10³ ∼ 104 times larger than that without the condensing minor. The focusing size is less than 100 μm of diameter. The x-ray after the minor is transformed to parallel beam using a Fresnel zone plate and irradiated on a protein crystal. The diffraction figure is detected by the an imaging-plate detector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brilliant hard X-rays are produced by the portable synchrotron named MIRRORCLE. The X-ray images taken by MIRRORCLE show enhanced edge effect even with contact imaging. Bodies composed of soft tissues are distinguished in spite of the predominantly hard X-ray components. The imaging mechanism, which is different from the phase contrast, was studied. It was found that the edge effect is partly due to the micron order x-ray source spot size, and MeV region hard X-rays. The characteristic of the medical diagnosis X-ray images and nondestructive inspection X-ray images taken by MIRRORCLE are studied in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]