Plenoptic x-ray microscopy

Plenoptic cameras use arrays of microlenses to capture multiple views of the same scene in a single compound image. They enable refocusing on different planes and depth estimation. However, until now, all types of plenoptic computational imaging processes have been limited to visible light. We demonstrate an x-ray plenoptic microscope that uses a concentrating microcapillary array instead of a microlens array and can simultaneously acquire from one hundred to one thousand x-ray projections of imaged volumes that are located in the focal spot region of the microcapillary array. Hence, tomographic slices at various depths near the focal plane can be reconstructed in a way similar to tomosynthesis but from a single x-ray exposure. The microscope enables the depth-resolved imaging of small subvolumes in large samples and can be used for the imaging of weakly absorbing artificial and biological objects by means of propagation phase-contrast.