MHz frame rate hard X-ray phase-contrast imaging using synchrotron radiation.

Third generation synchrotron light sources offer high photon flux, partial spatial coherence, and ~10 s pulse widths. These enable hard X-ray phase-contrast imaging (XPCI) with single-bunch temporal resolutions. In this work, we exploited the MHz repetition rates of synchrotron X-ray pulses combined with indirect X-ray detection to demonstrate the potential of XPCI with millions of frames per second multiple-frame recording. This allows for the visualization of aperiodic or stochastic transient processes which are impossible to be realized using single-shot or stroboscopic XPCI. We present observations of various phenomena, such as crack tip propagation in glass, shock wave propagation in water and explosion during electric arc ignition, which evolve in the order of km/s (µm/ns).