Radiographic spectroscopy of atomic composition of materials: a multi-energy approach

Theoretical model of multi-energy radiography (MER) for reconstruction of the atomic structure is proposed. It is shown that, using multi-channel absorption and detection of radiation, effective atomic number and quantitative chemical composition of the materials can be readily reconstructed. This approach opens prospects for improvement of efficiency of X-ray techniques in non-destructive testing, nuclear and safety monitoring, security customs control, and others.