Beam hardening correction of Bremsstrahlung X-ray computed tomography measurements and required measurement accuracies

Abstract

Doing quantitative computed tomography (CT) using Bremsstrahlung sources requires an estimate of the spectrum emitted by the X-ray source. One method of beam hardening correction (BHC), as described by Lifton[1], first uses transmission measurements of a known material and range of thicknesses to estimate the spectrum and then uses the estimated spectrum to correct the beam hardening error, not necessarily on the same material as used for estimating the spectrum. We adopt Lifton's BHC procedure and through simulations show how the uncertainties in the transmission measurements and the uncertainties in the material thickness measurements propagate to uncertainties in the spectrum, the beam hardening correction curve and thence to uncertainties in the beam hardening corrected CT reconstruction.