Feasibility of Active Sandwich Detectors for Single-Shot Dual-Energy Imaging∗

We revisit the doubly-layered sandwich detector con guration for single-shot dual-energy x-ray imaging. In order to understand its proper operation, we investigated the contrast-to-noise performance in terms of the x-ray beam setup using the Monte Carlo methods. Using a pair of active photodiode arrays coupled to phosphor screens, we have built a sandwich detector. For better spectral separation between the projection images obtained from the front and rear detectors during a single x-ray exposure, we inserted a copper sheet between two detectors. We have successfully obtained soft tissueand bone-enhanced images for a postmortem mouse with the developed sandwich detector using weighted logarithmic subtraction, and the image quality was comparable to those achieved by the conventional kVp-switching technique. Although some problems to be mitigated for the optimal and practical use, for example, the scatter e ect and image registration, are still left, the performance of the sandwich detector for single-shot dual-energy x-ray imaging is promising. We expect that the active sandwich detector will provide motion-artifact-free dual-energy images with a reasonable image quality.