It often happens with a new technology that anticipation starts to build as the time gets closer for its public debut. Staff members from the Beckman Institute's Imaging Technology Group (ITG) are finding that's the case for the one-of-a-kind array of computed tomography (CT) instruments that are in the process of being installed in ITG's Microscopy Suite.

By the end of this year, the Microscopy Suite will be home to a quartet of high-performance x-ray CT instruments for imaging an unprecedented range of scales and samples, including a unique nanotomography (nano-CT) microscope that will provide unparalleled, three-dimensional images of structures at the nanoscale.

ITG's Microscopy Suite has had a Skyscan Micro-CT unit for two years and in March added a higher resolution micro-CT unit that was the first of three x-ray CTs to be acquired from manufacturer Xradia with an historic National Science Foundation (NSF) grant. When the nano-CT is installed sometime later this year it will, for the first time on a university campus, give researchers high resolution, nondestructive, internal imaging of materials at sub-cellular scales.

The nearly $2M NSF Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) grant for acquiring three new CT units was one of the largest of its kind ever awarded and the largest MRI grant ever to the University. Microscopy Suite Manager Scott Robinson said the original grant proposal to the NSF had 47 faculty members as co-authors. Several of the co-authors, including principal investigator Paul Braun, are faculty members in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, but co-authors of the grant came from many departments on campus - as does interest in using the nano-CT when it becomes available.

"We have people asking us about it and we have some people who are scheduling already," Robinson said.

When the nano-CT is installed it will greatly expand the ability of the Microscopy Suite to serve researchers. Microscopist Leilei Yin will be in charge of the suite of CT units; he said ITG staff members and Xradia are working together to create something unique.

"It's special for us and it's special even for them (Xradia)," Yin said. "This is the first place in the U.S. to have a whole system installed at a university, both micro-CT and nano-CT. I believe it is the only one that is accessible to outside users. Some other government agencies might have comparable systems but they are not open to the public."

Robinson said the units will provide a new world of imaging possibilities for Illinois researchers.

"We're really excited because we are going to have four different components," he said. "We're going to be able to cover a lot of sizes and samples, and a lot of resolutions."

The new Xradia MicroXCT™ has been in operation since March and has about five times better resolution than the Skyscan micro-CT, with resolutions that can at times approach nanoscale. A second component is scheduled to be installed this spring that will give better than one micron resolution. The Xradia nanoXCT™ will complete the acquisition and offer high-resolution x-ray tomography capabilities that can provide nondestructive, internal 3-D imaging of samples as thick as 20 micrometers while resolving features as small as 30 nanometers in width.

"Right now we're pushing one micron resolution and we might even be better on some samples," Robinson said. "Once we get below one micron then we're really in the nano range, in nanometers. Eventually we hope to have 30 nm resolution on particular samples."