X-ray generation at SPARC-LAB Thomson backscattering source

In the last years, the phase contrast X-ray imaging became a very promising technique, in particular for medical application. At this purpose, several compact and very performing X-ray sources are growing up all around the world and most of them are based upon the Thomson backscattering phenomenon. This is the context of the SPARC LAB Thomson backscattering X-ray source, presently under commissioning at INFN-LNF. Here a head-on collision is foreseen at the Thomson Interaction Point between a 30 to 150MeV electron beam and the 250TW FLAME laser pulse, providing a photon energy tunability in the range from 20 to 250keV. The first experiment foresees the generation of a X-ray beam, useful for X-ray imaging of mammographic phantoms with the phase contrast technique. In February 2014, the SPARC LAB Thomson source produced its very first X-ray beam. The shift and the obtained results are presented.