Towards a high-resolution volumetric X-ray diffraction imaging system for biospecimen

In a surgical pathology setting, the clinical study of tissue specimens is often limited to evaluating an effectively 2D representation of an inherently 3D specimen and disease, most commonly by a several-micron thick hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) stained glass slide. X-ray transmission allows for the study of thicker tissue volumes but does not provide soft tissue contrast. Previous studies using X-ray diffraction (XRD) have shown that XRD can differentiate some soft tissue and disease types from one another. We focus here on simulation-based trade studies using a toy model to optimize and evaluate the imaging performance of a 3D structured illumination XRD imaging scheme. In particular, we quantify the lateral and axial spatial resolution and evaluate how these parameters depend on the angular extent and beamlet configuration of the primary structured illumination beam. We observe an optimal beamlet configuration and show that a transverse resolution of 100 um and an axial resolution of 500 um is achievable.