An xray gas position sensitive detector: Construction and characterization

A. F. Barbosa, A. Gabriel, and A. Craievich

Citation: Review of Scientific Instruments 60, 2315 (1989); doi: 10.1063/1.1140750

View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.1140750
View Table of Contents: http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/rsi/60/7?ver=pdfcov
Published by the AIP Publishing

Articles you may be interested in

Development of PositionSensitive Magnetic Calorimeter Xray Detectors
AIP Conf. Proc. 1185, 599 (2009); 10.1063/1.3292413

Position sensitive xray detector OD3

Rev. Sci. Instrum. 67, 3361 (1996); 10.1063/1.1147391

Novel xray diffractometer/positionsensitive detector system

Rev. Sci. Instrum. 55, 1455 (1984); 10.1063/1.1137956

Position sensitive xray detector

Rev. Sci. Instrum. 48, 1303 (1977); 10.1063/1.1134870

A Position Sensitive Proportional Detector for XRay Crystallography

Rev. Sci. Instrum. 43, 1600 (1972); 10.1063/1.1685500

This article is copyrighted as indicated in the article. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://scitationnew.aip.org/termsconditions. Downloaded to IP:
216.165.95.79 On: Wed, 10 Dec 2014 17:28:31
 An x .. ray gas position sensitive detector: Construction and characterization
A. F. Barbosa
Centro Brasileiro de Pesquisas F/sicas, RUG Xavier Sigaud, 150, 22290 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

A. Gabriel
EMBL, B. P.156X F-3804J Grenoble, France

A Craievich
Laboratorio Nacional de Luz Sfncrotron, C. P. 6192, 13081 Campinas, SP and Instituto de Ffsica, USP,
Silo Paulo, Brazil
(Presented on 31 August 1988)

A linear x-ray gas position sensitive detector with delay line readout has been constructed. The
detector is described, characterized, and used for detecting x-ray diffraction patterns from
polycrystals.

INTRODUCTION A schematic view of a one-dimensional detector is pre-

sented in Fig. 1. The coordinate x of the position associated
Scientists who are currently interested in studying the struc-
with the incoming photon is given by
ture of materials by x-ray diffraction and scattering tech-
niques often require sources of higher intensity. There is, at x = k(tl - t2 + /:),t') = k/:),t,
present, in Brazil a growing interest by crystallographers in where k is constant, t I and t2 are the times at which the pulses
more powerful x-ray sources; it is expected that the future arrive at the ends of the delay line, and t:..t! is an external
availability of a synchrotron radiation facility at the Brazi- delay time which is iptroduced for assuring positive values
lian National Laboratory for Synchrotron Light (LNLS) in for the readout b.t intervals.
Campinas' will enhance the possibilities for crystallogra- The relevant specifications of the built detector are:
phers and material scientists to perform new experiments Anode (gold-coated tungsten wire) diameter: 20 pm,
needing high-precision determinations of scattering intensi- Distance between cathode strips: 2.54 mm.
ty or high time resolution. Anode-cathode distance: 3 mm.
The laboratories which have intense x-ray sources also Delay line characteristic impedance: 50 n.
require more efficient detection systems, namely, position Total delay time: 0.5 fts.
sensitive detectors. In particular, at LNLS a Reticon array Gas (Ar-lO% CH4) pressure: 2 bar,
detector system for visible and UV light is being bui1t 2 and Thickness of the beryllium window: 250 !lm.
will also be adapted for x-ray detection. Length of the sensitive area: 80 mm.
This article describes the first results of a project for The assembling of the mechanical parts of the detector is
construction of x-ray gas position sensitive detectors at the shown in Fig. 2. Indium wires have been used to ensure the
Brazilian Center for Physical Research (CBPF), Rio de sealing of the gas chamber.
Janeiro. The x-ray detector group at CBPF intends to build The electronic system (Fig. 3) for recording the photon
these detectors locally and provide them to crystallography distribution consists of two preamplifiers, two amplifier-dis-
laboratories and to LNLS. criminators, a delay-time generator, a time-to-amplitude
Two projects have been initiated which concern (a) a converter, and a multichannel analyzer system associated
one-dimensional and (b) a two-dimensional position sensi- with a PC compatible microcomputer.
tive detector, using gas chambers, metallic anode wires, and
delay lines. We report the construction and characterization
of the linear x-ray detector and its first applications to dif-
fraction experiments.

I. FEATURES
n photon

beryllium
The linear position sensitive detectors consist of a gas window
chamber, a metallic anode wire, and a cathode connected to
a delay line. As in proportional detectors, the incoming pho-
tons produce electrical charges in the gas, which induce a cathode
pulse on the cathode. The measured values of the traveling
times of the induced charges from the point of collection to
the ends of the delay line, are used to determine the position
of the photons. 3 FIG. I. Detection cell (schematic).

2315 Rev. Sci. !nstrum. 60 (7), July 1989 0034-6748/89/012315-03$01.30 @ 1989 Amer!can Institute of Physics 2315

This article is copyrighted as indicated in the article. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://scitationnew.aip.org/termsconditions. Downloaded to IP:
216.165.95.79 On: Wed,
•••• -. , •••• -.-••••••••••• 10
,' •••>;•••••••••••••••••• Dec 2014
:.:.:.:.:.:.:.;.;.:.:.:.; 17:28:31•••; •••••••: •.•••••••: ••
••••••: ••••••••••::.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:-:.:.:.:.:.;.:
>;>: •••••••• -.~••••••••- ••••••• ,".-•••-, •••• ~,.,. ,._ ••••
 FIG. 2. Assembling of the detector, (a) detection cell, (b) beryllium win- "H'" 2175 2250 "".0 2",,00
dow. VOLTAGE (V)

FlO. 4, Count number as a function of the detector high voltage.

II. CHARACTERIZATION
The characterization of the detector has been carried
out by using a standard x-ray generator producing filtered
CuKa radiation, which mainly contains photons of approxi-
eoo
f
mately 8 keY. 520
f
The counting rate of the detector as a function of the
high voltage between anode and cathode, is represented in "0
Fig. 4. The counting rate exhibits a "plateau" above
V = 2250 V. Consequently, the operating high voltage of the
detector was chosen to be 2300 V.
The resolution parameter R is defined as the full width
I
at half maximum intensity (FWHM) of the counting distri- _L_j
bution for an incoming beam of negligible cross section. This S .•

parameter has been determined by using a slit of 17 11m BEAM POSITION X (em)
between the x-ray source and the detector. The measured
FIG. 5. Linearity test (channel number as a function ofthe beam position).
values of R vary slightly as a function of the position of the
beam around the average value of R = 430.um (FWHM).
With the total length of the detector window L equal to 80
mm, the relative resolution becomes R /L = 0.5%.
The linearity of the detector has been evaluated by mea-
suring the intensity profiles recorded for a narrow incoming
beam (width = 90.urn) for different beam-incidence posi-
tions. The center of gravity of the distributions in the multi-
channel analyzer as a function of the beam position is plotted
in Fig. 5. This figure shows a qualitatively good linearity; the

BEAM POSITION X (cm)

FIG. 6. Homogeneity test (count number as a function of the beam posi-

b tion).

c d e

FIG. 3. Electronic system for data readout, (a) detector, (b) preamplifiers,
(c) amplifier-discriminators, (d) time-delay generator. (e) time-to-ampli- DiFFRACTION ANGl E (degrees)

tude converter, (0 multichannel analyzer and PC computer, and (g) high

voltage supply. FIG. 7. Diffraction pattern from a silicon polycrystal.

2316 Rev. SCi.lnstrum., Vol. 60, No.7, July 1989 Data acquisition and image detectors 2316

This article is copyrighted as indicated in the article. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://scitationnew.aip.org/termsconditions. Downloaded to IP:
216.165.95.79 On: Wed, 10 Dec 2014 17:28:31
 III. APPL.ICATIONS
~
s.o
g (oj
For testing purposes the linear detector has been used to
0::
III
III
::E 4.5
record the x-ray diffraction patterns of polycrystalIine sili-
:>
z con and C 23 H.,.s paraffin sampleso For comparison, a similar
I-
Z experiment has been carried out for the same paraffin sample
.
:> 3.0
0
u ." using a scintillation counter and the standard step scanning
" procedure.
1.5

:
.. The diffraction diagram for the silicon sample is repre-
0.0 ~ "OI\'P~_ ........ sented in Fig. 7 for diffraction angles ranging from 84° up to
2.0 4.0 s.o 6.0 98°. The CuKa doublet for the 333 and 224 Bragg reflections
DIFFRACTION ANGLE (dogr•• s) is partially resolved in the obtained experimental profile.
The small angle diffraction pattern corresponding to the
paraffin sample is plotted in Fig. 8(a). This diagram shows
the 002, 004, and 006 Bragg reflections from the crystalline
modification of the studied paraffin. The same portion of the
pattern has been recorded using the step scanning procedure
with a resolution slit of 90 pm. The width at half maximum
intensity of the 002 Bragg peak profiles in Fig. 8(a) (posi-
tion sensitive detector) and Fig. 8(b) (step scanning) are
0.18° and 0.13", respectively. This difference is expected be-
cause of the different resolution parameter associated with
each procedure.

2.0
FIG. 8. Diffraction patterns from a paraffin sample using: (a) the position
sensitive detector (counting time: 300 s) and (b) the step scanning proce-
dure (total scanning time: 2400 s).
integral nonlinearity has been determined to be lower than
1%. The data of Fig. 5 provide the factor which should be
used to obtain the coordinate x of the incoming photon from
the analyzer channel number N: (I.l.x/I:J.N) = 0.154
mm/channel.
The plot in Fig. 6 represents the x-ray intensity as a
function of the relative position of the incoming beam. We
can see that the variation in photon count number is approxi-
mately 1.5%. The statistical relative error for the number of
recorded photons Nis 0/$) = 0.5%. From this we esti-
mate the relative variation in the intrinsic detector efficiency
to be about 1%.
IV. REMARKS
4.0 6.0 8.0 10 The characteristics of the first x-ray gas position sensi-
tive detector built at CBPF, are comparable with those of
similar detectors reported in previous works. 4 The detector
is now used for x-ray diffraction and small-angle scattering
measurements. These experiments will allow us to verify the
long-term reliability and, eventually, to improve the perfor-
mance of the detector.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
One of the authors (AoF.B.) is grateful to PAPERJ
(Rio de Janeiro Institution) for its financial support.
Ie. E. T. Gon,(alves da Silva, A. R. Rodrigues, and A. F. Craievich, Synch.
Rad. News 1, 28 (l988).
2A. R. B. de Castro, J. E. A. Verdugo, and P. T. Fonseca (to be published).
'A. Gabriel, Rev. Sci. lnstrum. 48, 1303 (1977).
4R. A. Boie, O. Fischer, Y. Inagaki, F. e. Merrit, Vo Radeka, L. C. Rogers,
and D. M. Xi, Nucl. lnstrum. Methods 201,93 (1982),

2317 Rev. Sci. Instrum., Vol. 60, No.7, July 1989 Data acquisition and image detectors 2317

This article is copyrighted as indicated in the article. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://scitationnew.aip.org/termsconditions. Downloaded to IP:
...'.•.•.'.•.•.••••..-•.•••.. •••;••••••••••'";••'•••.•.•:<.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.;.:.:.:.:.;.:.;••• ..••.•:•.216.165.95.79
:.:.~.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.;·7.·.·.·.·.·.·.'.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.;.:.:.:.:.:.:.;.:.:.?~ -:•••:••• On:
..•..•;'••..•..'.'.'Wed,
~ •.••• 10 Dec 2014
•••.••••.••.•.•••••• 17:28:31
:.:.:.:.:.:.;.:.:.:.;.:.;.:.:.;.;
:.:.:.:.:.:.:':.:.:.:.:o:.:.:.;.;';O~'.'. ••••.•.•••.•'••
~.:.:.:.:.:.:.;.:o;.;.;.;.~.~ y.·A·.·•••• " I ....... _.. • .... _. .. "" . .- .••.••-.-•••. __
;';>•••'.'.' •••' •••:.~ •••••••-.-•••••••••••.•••• -.....................-...... •• ~.'.-.- "0' •••••