Michele Cascella

At MAX IV pixelated area detectors are operated at high frame rates to take advantage of the X-ray beam properties available from the fourth generation synchrotron in scattering, diffraction and imaging applications. A variety of photon counting and charge integrating detectors and sCMOS cameras have been integrated into a common data acquisition (DAQ) system in which data are streamed to a central Kubernetes cluster, mounting an IBM Storage Scale (GPFS) file system. The DAQ system provides live feedback from the detectors/cameras and extends to enable on-the-fly data processing. Control system integration via Tango provides a standardised single interface for controlling all DAQ components. Starting from an overview of the detector types in use, we describe the design and implementation of the MAX IV detector-DAQ system and report a quantitative study of its performance in terms of data throughput and detector operating rates.

Free-electron lasers provide bright, ultrashort, and monochromatic x-ray pulses, enabling novel spectroscopic measurements not only with femtosecond temporal resolution: The high fluence of their x-ray pulses can also easily enter the regime of the non-linear x-ray–matter interaction. Entering this regime necessitates a rigorous analysis and reliable prediction of the relevant non-linear processes for future experiment designs. Here, we show non-linear changes in the L3-edge absorption of metallic nickel thin films, measured with fluences up to 60 J/cm2. We present a simple but predictive rate model that quantitatively describes spectral changes based on the evolution of electronic populations within the pulse duration. Despite its simplicity, the model reaches good agreement with experimental results over more than three orders of magnitude in fluence, while providing a straightforward understanding of the interplay of physical processes driving the non-linear changes. Our findings provide important insights for the design and evaluation of future high-fluence free-electron laser experiments and contribute to the understanding of non-linear electron dynamics in x-ray absorption processes in solids at the femtosecond timescale.

In X-ray macromolecular crystallography (MX), single-wavelength anomalous dispersion (SAD) and multi-wavelength anomalous dispersion (MAD) techniques are commonly used for obtaining experimental phases. For an MX synchrotron beamline to support SAD and MAD techniques it is a prerequisite to have a reliable, fast and well automated energy scan routine. This work reports on a continuous energy scan procedure newly implemented at the BioMAX MX beamline at MAX IV Laboratory. The continuous energy scan is fully automated, capable of measuring accurate fluorescence counts over the absorption edge of interest while minimizing the sample exposure to X-rays, and is about a factor of five faster compared with a conventional step scan previously operational at BioMAX. The implementation of the continuous energy scan facilitates the prompt access to the anomalous scattering data, required for the SAD and MAD experiments.

The ePix detector family provides multiple variants of hybrid pixel detectors to support a wide range of applications at free electron laser (FEL) facilities. The ePix detectors are by design versatile and easily re-configurable camera systems with common mechanical, electrical and data acquisition interfaces. Operation of detectors at FEL sources providing high brilliance, high repetition rate and ultra-short X-ray pulses poses a high risk of radiation damage to exposed detector components, such as the sensor and the readout Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC). Knowledge about radiation-induced damage is important for understanding its influence on the quality of scientific data and the lifetime of the detector. We present the results of a systematic study of the influence of radiation-induced damage on the performance and lifetime of an ePix100a detector module using a direct attenuated beam of the European X-ray Free Electron Laser Facility (European XFEL) at 9 keV photon energy and average power of 10 μW. An area of 20 pixels×20 pixels was irradiated with an average photon flux of ≈ 7× 10⁹photons/s to a dose of approximately (760± 65) kGy at the location of the Si/SiO₂interfaces in the sensor. A dose dependent increase in both offset and noise of the ePix100a detector have been observed originating from an increase of the sensor leakage current. Moreover, we observed an effect directly after irradiation resulting in the saturation of individual pixels by their dark current. Changes in gain are evaluated one and half hours post-irradiation and suggest damage to occur also on the ASIC level. Based on the obtained results, thresholds for beam parameters are deduced and the detector lifetime is estimated with respect to the requirements to the data quality in order to satisfy the scientific standards defined by the experiments. We conclude the detector can withstand a beam with an energy up to 1 μJ at a photon energy of 9 keV impacting on an area of 1 mm². The detector can be used without significant degradation of its performance for several years if the incident photon beam intensities do not exceed the detector's dynamic range by at least three orders of magnitude. Our results provide valuable input for the operation of the ePix100a detector at FEL facilities and the design of future detector technology.

Drift chambers operated with helium-based gas mixtures represent a common solution for tracking charged particles keeping the material budget in the sensitive volume to a minimum. The drawback of this solution is the worsening of the spatial resolution due to primary ionisation fluctuations, which is a limiting factor for high granularity drift chambers like the MEG II tracker. We report on the measurements performed on three different prototypes of the MEG II drift chamber aimed at determining the achievable single-hit resolution. The prototypes were operated with helium/isobutane gas mixtures and exposed to cosmic rays, electron beams and radioactive sources. Direct measurements of the single hit resolution performed with an external tracker returned a value of 110 μm, consistent with the values obtained with indirect measurements performed with the other prototypes.