Synchrotron radiation is the best and brightest X-ray radiation. It has undergone considerable development in recent decades. The first description of synchrotron radiation dates back to 1947 and since then interest in it has grown, especially in physics and research with solids. The last few decades have seen new possibilities in research and diagnostics. The principle of synchrotron radiation is based on the movement of electrons. If the electrons move fast enough, they emit energy that is greater than that of X-ray waves. The electrons are introduced into the booster synchrotron and accelerated to a high speed. In the process, they are brought up to 6 giga-electron volts (GeV).

When the beam changes, it loses energy. This energy is used as synchrotron radiation to take pictures. Special magnets ensure that the radiation is coherent and bright. It is therefore as good as modern laser radiation. Synchrotron radiation is hundreds of billions of times brighter than an ordinary X-ray source, as used in medical imaging. This means that you can see better than with a normal computer tomography. Most conventional, clinically used imaging methods use the effect that X-rays are attenuated when they penetrate the tissue. In the hierarchical phase contrast tomography procedure, attenuation effects are also used. The phase shifts of electromagnetic radiation are converted into intensity fluctuations. These are recorded by the detector and reconstructed in three dimensions with high edge definition. In 2020, the ESRF was upgraded to a “fourth generation” X-ray source. This made “hierarchical” phase-contrast CT (HiP-CT) possible.