Jeffrey W. Keister

The U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Precise monitoring of the incoming photon flux is crucial for many experiments using synchrotron radiation. For photon energies above a few keV, thin semiconductor photodiodes can be operated in transmission for this purpose. Diamond is a particularly attractive material as a result of its low absorption. The responsivity of a state-of-the art diamond quadrant transmission detector has been determined, with relative uncertainties below 1% by direct calibration against an electrical substitution radiometer. From these data and the measured transmittance, the thickness of the involved layers as well as the mean electron–hole pair creation energy were determined, the latter with an unprecedented relative uncertainty of 1%. The linearity and X-ray scattering properties of the device are also described.

We have studied the effects of multiple-wave diffraction in a novel optical scheme recently published by Shvyd’ko et al. utilizing Bragg diffraction of x rays in backscattering geometry from asymmetrically cut crystals for achieving energy resolutions beyond the intrinsic width of the Bragg reflection. By numerical simulations based on dynamic x-ray diffraction and by experimentation involving two-dimensional angular scans of the back-reflecting crystal, multiple-wave diffraction was found to contribute up to several tens percent loss of efficiency but can be avoided without degrading the energy resolution of the original scheme by careful choice of azimuthal orientation of the diffracting crystal surface and by tilting of the crystal perpendicular to the dispersion plane.

We have developed a new thin-window, n-type, low-resistivity, spiral silicon drift detector (SDD) array - to be used as an extraterrestrial X-ray spectrometer (in varying environments) for NASA. To achieve low-energy response, a thin SDD entrance window was produced using a previously developed method. These thin-window devices were also produced on lower resistivity, thinner, n-type, silicon material, effectively ensuring their radiation hardness in anticipation of operation in potentially harsh radiation environments (such as found around the Jupiter system). Using the Indiana University Cyclotron Facility beam line RERS1, we irradiated a set of suitable diodes up to 5 Mrad and the latest iteration of our ASICs up to 12 Mrad. Then we irradiated two hybrid detectors consisting of newly, such-produced in-house (BNL) SDD chips bonded with ASICs with doses of 0.25 Mrad and 1 Mrad. Also we irradiated another hybrid detector consisting of previously produced (by KETEK) on n-type, high-resistivity SDD chip bonded with BNL's ASICs with a dose of 1 Mrad. The measurement results of radiated diodes (up to 5 Mrad), ASICs (up to 12 Mrad) and hybrid detectors (up to 1 Mrad) are presented here.

Theoretical analysis of high-energy-resolution x-ray optics, such as backscattering and four-bounce monochromators and analyzers, has been carried out using computer modeling within the framework of the dynamical theory of x-ray diffraction. This analysis identifies several important techniques for the precise alignment and determination of the energy and bandwidth of the monochromators. The destructive contribution of multiple-wave diffraction to the scattering intensity of x-ray backscattering optics has also been analyzed in details. An important method has been identified which allows this destructive contribution to be avoided.