A NEW POSITION-SENSITIVE X-RAY DETECTOR

APPLIED RESEARCH CORPORATION (ARC) PROPOSES TO DEVELOP A NEW CLASS OF SOLID-STATE PARTICLE/RADIATION DETECTORS. ARRAYS OF THESE DETECTORS WILL PROVIDE IMAGES WITH SUPERIOR QUALITY. MORE SPECIFICALLY, ARC PROPOSES TO DEVELOP SOFT X-RAY DETECTORS (E=0.5 TO 20 KEV) FOR BIOLOGICAL APPLICATIONS, E.G., PROTEIN CRYSTALLOGRAPHY. THE PROPOSED DETECTOR WILL ADVANCE PRESENT MATERIAL CHARACTERIZATION CAPABILITIES BY IMPROVING SPATIAL, ANGULAR, AND ENERGY RESOLUTION. FURTHERMORE, IT IS RADIATION HARD AND PERMITS IMAGING OF VERY HIGH FLUXES, OVER 1 MILLION PHOTONS PER SECOND, IN BOTH UV AND SOFT X-RAYS. SUBSEQUENTLY, A 2,048 X 2,048 PIXEL ARRAY WITH COUNT RATES BETTER THAN 10(8)COUNTS PER SECOND WILL BE DEVELOPED FOR APPLICATIONS IN SYNCHROTRON RADIATION AND FREE-ELECTRON LASER FACILITIES. THE DETECTOR IS BASED ON ENERGY-SENSITIVE SUPERCONDUCTING STRUCTURES AND HAS BEEN TESTED WITH X-RAY SOURCES. IN PHASE I, ARC WILL PERFORM A SERIES OF MEASUREMENTS OF QUANTUM DETECTION EFFICIENCY (QDE). DETECTOR PROPERTIES (ENERGY RESOLUTION, STOPPING POWER) FOR APPLICATION AS A HIGH-SPATIAL-RESOLUTION DETECTOR WILL BE OPTIMIZED. READ-OUT ELECTRONICS FOR A SMALL ARRAY DETECTOR, E.G., 64 X 64 PIXELS, WILL ALSO BE DEVELOPED AND TESTED.