Welcome to Micro CT at AES
We use the latest state of the art X-ray technology to explore the microscopic structures of a wide range of biomaterials. Our research is carried out using a recently installed Phoenix X-ray Nanotom.
Please see the links below for further details.
The Nanotom is the one of most advanced 3-D X-ray micro Computed Tomography (CT) scanner's in the world, allowing you to see the external and internal structure of an object without disturbing it. It can see through solids and can produce high-resolution 2-D slice images and 3-D visualisations of your sample in minutes and at a pixel resolution down to 500 nm.
Please see our promotional flyer for further details.
X-ray computed tomography involves the acquisition of a series of x-ray projection images (similar to those used by a medical doctor to diagnose a broken bone) at a known number of angular positions through 360 degrees.
Variation in the contrast of each projection image relates to how the x-rays are attenuated as they penetrate the sample.
The projection images are reconstructed using mathematical algorithms to calculate a spatial map of the linear attenuation coefficient for each 2D axial slice of the image. The resulting slice is comprised of voxels (3-D pixels). The size of each voxel determines the resolution of the scan which typically ranges from 500 µm to 500 nm. Each voxel is assigned a greyscale value derived from the linear attenuation (density) of the material. Using digital image processing it is possible to extract a feature of interest and create a 3-D visualisation of it that can be viewed in any orientation.