First experiments on diffraction-enhanced imaging at LNLS

Diffraction-enhanced images have been obtained using two silicon crystals in a non-dispersive set-up at the XRD2 beamline at the Brazilian Synchrotron Light Laboratory (LNLS). A first asymmetrically cut silicon crystal using the (333) reflection vertically expanded the monochromated beam from 1 mm to 20 mm allowing the imaging of the whole sample without movements. A symmetrically cut Si(333) second crystal was used as a Bragg analyzer. Images of biological samples including human tissue were recorded using a direct-conversion CCD detector resulting in enhancement of the contrast compared with absorption-contrast images.