Detectors
Many synchrotron experiments using X-ray fluorescence techniques are currently limited by the sensitivity of dedicated detectors. Indeed, in this type of experiments, key parameters for the detector are their ability to count a high number of incoming photons without saturation and the quality of the signal detected compared to the background noise. For the development of a new generation of fluorescence detectors, a new simulation chain has been built by the Detector group to study the detector performance.
To meet the needs of pump-probe-probe time-resolved X-ray diffraction experiments, such as those carried out on CRISTAL beamline, the Synchrotron SOLEIL Detectors group launched an R&D project in 2017. Carried out in collaboration with the AGH-UST faculty of Krakow (Poland), which supplied the integrated microelectronic circuits allowing readout and processing of the signal, this project consisted of designing a new fast detector of photon counting type and time resolved.
After the restart of the accelerators and the implementation of a specific organization, in particular around the Control Room, the beamlines restarted on Tuesday, May 26.
Following a joint project undertaken by the ImXPAD Company and SOLEIL with a development time of more than three years, a ‘CirPAD’ detector was installed in May 2018 on the diffractometer of the DIFFABS beamline. Of circular shape, X-ray diffraction measurements can be taken over an angular range of nearly 140° in a single acquisition step, which will greatly decrease the data acquisition time. This issue, associated with the fact that the detector is two-dimensional, will make possible diffraction experiments, which until now could not have been performed on the beamline.
In a time resolved pump-probe experiment, the sample is excited with an ultra-short laser pulse (the pump), and induced changes in its atomic structure are studied by measuring, with a 2-D pixel detector and a precisely controlled delay, a diffraction pattern from a single pulse of synchrotron radiation (the probe). Such an experimental set-up has been successfully developed and is in use on the CRISTAL hard X-ray diffraction beamline.
If the traditional domain of excellence of synchrotron radiation is that of X-rays, SOLEIL also represents a currently irreplaceable broad band source for high resolution infrared (IR) spectroscopy because of its high brilliance. Researchers from SOLEIL and other synchrotrons in the world take advantage of this property for IR absorption gas analysis.
Stefan Arold's group from KAUST in Saudi Arabia became the first group to solve the structure of an important protein using the new EIGER 9M detector at SOLEIL.
Synchrotron radiation beamlines are capable of focusing an X-ray beam to less than ten microns and now even less on long beamlines such as Nanoscopium. These beamlines need to be equipped with quick Diagnosiss to measure both the flux and position of the beam, thus ensuring its stability and the normalization of the data collection with beam intensity.
On Tuesday February 11, SOLEIL will be at Supelec for the 17th edition of the annual “Bouge la Science!” day. This event allows middle and high school students to discover scientific experiments with the aim of sparking their interest and curiosity.
This year, the chosen topic is “From the Wheel to the Robot”. It is the perfect opportunity for us to present our Detection workshop: a journey of discovery from the five senses to SOLEIL detectors!