Fast CCD camera for x-ray photon correlation spectroscopy and time-resolved x-ray scattering and imaging
- Department of Physics, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06520 and Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 (United States)
A new, fast x-ray detector system is presented for high-throughput, high-sensitivity, time-resolved, x-ray scattering and imaging experiments, most especially x-ray photon correlation spectroscopy (XPCS). After a review of the architectures of different CCD chips and a critical examination of their suitability for use in a fast x-ray detector, the new detector hardware is described. In brief, its principal component is an inexpensive, commercial camera - the SMD1M60 - originally designed for optical applications, and modified for use as a direct-illumination x-ray detector. The remainder of the system consists of two Coreco Imaging PC-DIG frame grabber boards, located inside a Dell Power-edge 6400 server. Each frame grabber sits on its own PCI bus and handles data from 2 of the CCD's 4 taps. The SMD1M60 is based on a fast, frame-transfer, 4-tap CCD chip, read out at12-bit resolution at frame rates of up to 62 Hz for full frame readout and up to 500 Hz for one-sixteenth frame readout. Experiments to characterize the camera's suitability for XPCS and small-angle x-ray scattering (SAXS) are presented. These experiments show that single photon events are readily identified, and localized to within a pixel index or so. This is a sufficiently fine spatial resolution to maintain the speckle contrast at an acceptable value for XPCS measurements. The detective quantum efficiency of the SMD1M60 is 49% for directly-detected 6.3 keV x rays. The effects of data acquisition strategies that permit near-real-time data compression are also determined and discussed. Overall, the SMD1M60 detector system represents a major improvement in the technology for time-resolved x-ray experiments, that require an area detector with time-resolutions in few-milliseconds-to-few-seconds range, and it should have wide applications, extending beyond XPCS.
- OSTI ID:
- 20643986
- Journal Information:
- Review of Scientific Instruments, Vol. 75, Issue 11; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.1808913; (c) 2004 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0034-6748
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
ARCHITECTURE
CHARGE-COUPLED DEVICES
DATA ACQUISITION
KEV RANGE 01-10
PHOTONS
QUANTUM EFFICIENCY
READOUT SYSTEMS
SMALL ANGLE SCATTERING
SPATIAL RESOLUTION
TIME RESOLUTION
X-RAY DETECTION
X-RAY DIFFRACTION
X-RAY SPECTROSCOPY