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A novel 4D resolution imaging method for low and medium atomic number objects at the centimeter scale by coincidence detection technique of cosmic-ray muon and its secondary particles

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Abstract

The muon radiography imaging technique for high-atomic-number objects (Z) and large-volume objects via muon transmission imaging and muon multiple scattering imaging remains a popular topic in the field of radiation detection imaging. However, few imaging studies have been reported on low and medium Z objects at the centimeter scale. This paper presents an imaging system that consists of three layers of a position-sensitive detector and four plastic scintillation detectors. It acquires data by coincidence detection technique of cosmic-ray muon and its secondary particles. A 3D imaging algorithm based on the density of the coinciding muon trajectory was developed, and 4D imaging that takes the atomic number dimension into account by considering the secondary particle ratio information was achieved. The resultant reconstructed 3D images could distinguish between a series of cubes with 5-mm-side lengths and 2-mm-intervals. If the imaging time is more than 20 days, this method can distinguish intervals with a width of 1 mm. The 4D images can specify target objects with low, medium, and high Z values.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Nuclear Science and Technology, University of South China, Hengyang, 421001, China

    Xuan-Tao Ji, Si-Yuan Luo, Yu-He Huang, Kun Zhu, Jin Zhu, Xiao-Yu Peng, Min Xiao & Xiao-Dong Wang

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  1. Xuan-Tao Ji
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  2. Si-Yuan Luo
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  3. Yu-He Huang
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  4. Kun Zhu
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  5. Jin Zhu
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  6. Xiao-Yu Peng
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  7. Min Xiao
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  8. Xiao-Dong Wang
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Xuan-Tao Ji, Si-Yuan Luo, Yu-He Huang, and Xiao-Dong Wang. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Xuan-Tao Ji, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Xiao-Dong Wang.

Additional information

This work was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China Foundation (No. 2020YFE0202001), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 11875163), and the Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province (No. 2021JJ20006).

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Ji, XT., Luo, SY., Huang, YH. et al. A novel 4D resolution imaging method for low and medium atomic number objects at the centimeter scale by coincidence detection technique of cosmic-ray muon and its secondary particles. NUCL SCI TECH 33, 2 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41365-022-00989-0

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