Full- and minimal-scan reconstruction algorithms for fan-beam diffraction tomography

Diffraction tomography (DT) is a tomographic inversion technique that reconstructs the spatially variant refractive-index distribution of a scattering object. In fan-beam DT, the interrogating radiation is not a plane wave but rather a cylindrical wave front emanating from a line source located a finite distance from the scattering object. We reveal and examine the redundant information that is inherent in the fan-beam DT data function. Such redundant information can be exploited to reduce the reconstructed image variance or, alternatively, to reduce the angular scanning requirements of the fan-beam DT experiment. We develop novel filtered backpropagation and estimate-combination reconstruction algorithms for full-scan and minimal-scan fan-beam DT. The full-scan algorithms utilize measurements taken over the angular range 0 less than or equal to phi phi less than or equal to 2 pi, whereas the minimal-scan reconstruction algorithms utilize only measurements taken over the angular range 0 less than or equal to phi less than or equal to phi (min) where pi less than or equal to phi (min) less than or equal to 3 pi /2 is a specified function that describes the fan-beam geometry. We demonstrate that the full- and minimal-scan fan-beam algorithms are mathematically equivalent. An implementation of the algorithms and numerical results obtained with noiseless and noisy simulated data are presented. (C) 2001 Optical Society of America.