Beam hardening correction for a cone-beam CT system and its effect on spatial resolution

In this paper, we present a beam hardening correction （BHC） method in three-dimension space for a cone-beam computed tomography （CBCT） system in a mono-material case and investigate its effect on the spatial resolution. Due to the polychromatic character of the X-ray spectrum used, cupping and streak artifacts called beam hardening artifacts arise in the reconstructed CT images, causing reduced image quality. In addition, enhanced edges are introduced in the reconstructed CT images because of the beam hardening effect. The spatial resolution of the CBCT system is calculated from the edge response function （ERF） on different planes in space. Thus, in the CT images with beam hardening artifacts, enhanced ERFs will be extracted to calculate the modulation transfer function （MTF）, obtaining a better spatial resolution that deviates from the real value. Reasonable spatial resolution can be obtained after reducing the artifacts. The 10% MTF value and the full width at half maximum （FWHM） of the point spread function with and without BHC are presented.

X-ray beam hardening correction for measuring density in linear accelerator industrial computed tomography

Due to X-ray attenuation being approximately proportional to material density,it is possible to measure the inner density through Industrial Computed Tomography（ICT） images accurately. In practice,however,a number of factors including the non-linear effects of beam hardening and diffuse scattered radiation complicate the quantitative measurement of density variations in materials. This paper is based on the linearization method of beam hardening correction,and uses polynomial fitting coecient which is obtained by the curvature of iron polychromatic beam data to fit other materials. Through theoretical deduction,the paper proves that the density measure error is less than 2% if using pre-filters to make the spectrum of linear accelerator range mainly 0.3 MeV to 3 MeV. Experiment had been set up at an ICT system with a 9 MeV electron linear accelerator. The result is satisfactory. This technique makes the beam hardening correction easy and simple,and it is valuable for measuring the ICT density and making use of the CT images to recognize materials.

A preliminary study of the feasibility of using superconducting quarter-wave resonators for accelerating high intensity proton beams

The superconducting （SC） cavities currently used for the acceleration of protons at a low velocity range are based on half-wave resonators. Due to the rising demand on high current, the issue of beam loading and space-charge problems has arisen. Qualities of low cost and high accelerating efficiency are required for SC cavities, which are properly fitted by using SC quarter-wave resonators （QWR）. We propose a concept of using QWRs with frequency 162.5 MHz to accelerate high current proton beams. The main factor limiting SC QWRs being applied to high current proton beams is vertical beam steering, which is dominantly caused by the magnetic field on axis. In this paper, we intend to analyze steering and eliminate it to verify the qualification of using QWRs to accelerate high intensity proton beams.