The long undulator beamline ANATOMIX is devoted to full-field tomography investigations. This beamline offers absorption and phase-contrast 3D X-ray imaging with high spatial resolution and sensitivity, for applications in materials science, biology and biomedical research. It is a cutting-edge tool for the acquisition of volume data allowing morphometric analysis of complex, heterogeneous three-dimensional objects with volumes up to several cm3, and 3D spatial resolution from several microns down to less than 100 nanometers. The beamline operates in an X-ray photon energy range from 5 to 50 keV and above, ideal for imaging soft tissue and light materials.

The beamline currently offers two spectral modes:

  • filtered white beam;
  • monochromatic beam from a double-crystal monochromator (DCM, ΔE/E ≈ 10-4, up to ≈ 25 keV).

In addition, a double-multilayer monochromator (ΔE/E ≈ 10-2) will be put into operation soon (expected to be operational in 2020).

Two types experimental stations cover different ranges of spatial resolution:

  • Parallel-beam microtomography in absorption and phase contrast – spatial resolution down to 1 µm (smallest pixel size 300 nm; maximum possible beam size: 40 mm x 15 mm [H x V]).
  • Full-field transmission X-ray microscope (TXM, nanotomography) – spatial resolution down to 100 nm (pixel size from 20 to 80 nm; field of view 40 µm x 40 µm; discrete working energy values);

ANATOMIX is an Equipment of Excellence (EQUIPEX) funded by the Investments for the Future program of the French National Research Agency (ANR), project NanoimagesX, grant no. ANR-11-EQPX-0031.

Beamline Energy Range
5 - 50 [keV]
Max Flux On Sample
1 * 1014 [ph/s] @ 12 [keV]
Spot Size On Sample Hor
0.5 - 40 [mm]
40 [um]
Spot Size On Sample Vert
0.5 - 15 [mm]
40 [um]
contacts
Timm Weitkamp
Mario Scheel
Jonathan Perrin
Techniques
Imaging
  • X-ray microscopy
  • X-ray tomography
Disciplines
Energy
  • Fusion
  • Sustainable energy systems
Life Sciences & Biotech
  • Medicine
  • Technique Development - Life Sciences & Biotech
Material Sciences
  • Other - Material Sciences
Physics
  • Dynamics
  • Surfaces, interfaces and thin films
control/Data analysis
Control Software Type
  • Standard SOLEIL Tango interface and/or Spyc command-line interface, depending on acquisition mode
Data Output Type
  • Radiographs; tomographic volume data
Data Output Format
  • Reconstructed volumes: 32-bit floating-point data in raw binary format, usually one big file per tomography scan. Can be converted to other formats using ImageJ if desired.
Softwares For Data Analysis
  • PyHST (tomographic reconstruction); ImageJ/Fiji (image inspection); Avizo (3D visualization)