A flexible modular laboratory X‐ray nano‐CT scanner

X‐ray micro/nano‐CT (μCT) has recently become a very powerful and common tool for non‐destructive 3D visualization and analysis of small objects. Many systems are commercially available, but they are typically limited in terms of resolution and/or sample size range, and come in closed cabinets, thus limiting the experimental freedom. The Centre for X‐ray Tomography of the Ghent University (UGCT, Belgium: www.ugct.ugent.be) has designed and built a state‐of‐the‐art modular micro/nano‐CT scanner. Its dual source / dual detector design attains resolutions down to 400 nm for small samples, but also allows scanning samples up to 30 cm in diameter at lower resolution. The performance of the system will be characterized in detail. Specific design elements built‐in to achieve the very high resolution will be presented, as well as the wide range of acquisition modes (helix scanning, tiled acquisition, continuous rotation, etc). A picture of the new scanner is shown in Figure 1. The scanner has already been used in multiple research applications. One of the results can be found in Figure 2, where a very small piece of wood is shown at a voxel size of approx. 500 nm.