Dichromatic source for the application of dual-energy tissue cancellation in mammography

A novel x-ray source, providing dichromatic beams for the application of dual-energy radiography, has been assembled and studied. The system works via Bragg diffraction, by monochromatizing the beam produced by a conventional W-anode x-ray tube with a mosaic crystal monochromator. The source generates a laminar beam (10 cm-high and 0.8 cm-wide), composed by two spatially superimposed quasi-monochromatic beams. The characteristics of the radiation field in terms of energy resolution and fluence have been reported, for three pairs of energies. A study of the spectra attenuated by several phantoms of breast equivalent tissue of different thicknesses shows that the optimal energy of the dichromatic beam for dual energy mammography application ranges between 18/36 keV and 18.6/37.2 keV and may be set as a function of the thickness or density of investigated tissue.