ABSTRACT
The name of Arthur H. Compton is associated to the inelastic scattering of an X-ray photon by an electron. The Compton Effect is actually a wonderful example of the particle nature of X-rays (see Chapter 1). However, Compton was fully aware that X-rays have a wave nature as well. In fact, his Nobel lecture, held on December 12, 1927, bears the evocative title “X-rays as a Branch of Optics,” and it clearly states at the very beginning that “there is hardly a phenomenon in the realm of light whose parallel is not found in the realm of X-rays” (Compton 1927, p. 174). Despite this early awareness, in the first century after X-ray discovery, the wave nature of X-rays has only occasionally been exploited for imaging.
