Multichannel Linear Detector for X-ray Spectroscopy

This paper considers a new linear multichannel x-ray detector designed on the basis of a BLPP-369M4 silicon photodiode array (2612 photodiodes, array pitch 12.5 mu m, height 4 mm, and dynamic range 10 4). The structure and characteristics of the multichannel detector are given, along with the K alpha(1,2), K beta(1), and K beta(5) x-ray emission lines and a K-edge absorption spectrum of metallic copper recorded on a universal URS-2I spectrometer using this detector. The resolution and the signal/noise ratio of these spectra are superior to those of spectra recorded by an SRPP-21 gas ionization counter at the same recording time. The detector has a spatial resolution of 20 mu m and an x-ray detection limit to equal 1 quantum at lambda = 1.54 angstrom . It is suitable for studying the fine structure of absorption spectra at 1-10 angstrom.