A large area CCD X-ray detector for exotic atom spectroscopy

A large area, position and energy sensitive detector has been developed to study the characteristic X-radiation of exotic atoms in the few keV range. The detector, built up from an array of six high-resistivity CCDs, is used as the focal plane of a reflection-type crystal spectrometer. A large detection area is necessary because of the need to detect simultaneously two or more lines close in energy as well as broad structures like fluorescence X-rays from electronic atoms. The fine pixel structure provides accurate determination of the X-ray line position while the excellent background rejection capabilities of the CCD, using both energy and topographical discrimination, are essential in the high background environment of a particle accelerator.