High-Resolution High-Count-Rate X-ray Spectroscopy with State-of-the-Art Silicon Detectors

For the European X-ray multi-mirror (XMM) satellite mission and the German X-ray satellite ABRIXAS, fully depleted pn-CCDs have been fabricated, enabling high-speed low-noise position-resolving X-ray spectroscopy. The detector was designed and fabricated with a homogeneously sensitive area of 36 cm². At 150 K it has a noise of 4 e^- r.m.s., with a readout time of the total focal plane array of 4 ms. The maximum count rate for single-photon counting was 10⁵ counts s^-1 under flat-field conditions. In the integration mode more than 10⁹ counts s^-1 can be detected at 6 keV. Its position resolution is of the order of 100 µm. The quantum efficiency is higher than 90% from carbon K X-rays (277 eV) up to 10 keV. New cylindrical silicon drift detectors have been designed, fabricated and tested. They comprise an integrated on-chip amplifier system with continuous reset, on-chip voltage divider, electron accumulation layer stabilizer, large area, homogeneous radiation entrance window and a drain for surface-generated leakage current. At count rates as high as 2 × 10⁶ counts cm^-2 s^-1, they still show excellent spectroscopic behaviour at room-temperature operation in single-photon detection mode. The energy resolution at room temperature is 220 eV at 6 keV X-ray energy and 140 eV at 253 K, being achieved with Peltier coolers. These systems were operated at synchrotron light sources (ESRF, HASYLAB and NLS) as X-ray fluorescence spectrometers in scanning electron microscopes and as ultra low noise photodiodes. The operation of a multi-channel silicon drift detector system is already foreseen at synchrotron light sources for X-ray holography experiments. All systems are fabricated in planar technology having the detector and amplifiers monolithically integrated on high-resistivity silicon.