Few-photon computed x-ray imaging

X-rays are a ubiquitous imaging modality in clinical diagnostics and industrial inspections, thanks to their high penetration power. Conventional transmission-based x-ray radiography or computed tomography systems collect approximately 10(3)-10(4) counts per pixel to ensure sufficient signal to noise ratio. The recent development of energy sensitive photon counting detectors has made x-ray imaging at low photon fluxes possible. In this paper, we report a photon-counting scheme that records the time stamp of individual photons, which follows a negative binomial distribution, and demonstrate the reconstruction based on the few-photon statistics. The x-ray projection and tomography reconstruction from measurements of similar to 16 photons per beam show potential for using photon counting detectors for dose-efficient x-ray imaging applications. Published by AIP Publishing.