Room temperature 2-D X-ray imaging with the Controlled-Drift Detector: first experimental results

The Controlled-Drift Detector is a single-photon counting X-ray imaging silicon detector that features excellent energy and time resolution. Its distinctive feature is the readout of the signal charge packets stored in each pixel column by means of an electrostatic field in few μs. The drift time of the charge packet identifies the pixel of incidence. Several 1-D flat images of single pixel columns have been acquired to investigate the achievable position resolution and the improvement of the energy resolution at high frame rates (up to 125 kHz). At 62.5 kHz the room-temperature energy resolution at the Mn Kα line is better than 300 eV FWHM. The first 2-D X-ray images of different masks carried out at frame frequencies in the range 10-100 kHz both with radioactive and synchrotron light sources are presented.