Instrumentation and Metrology

Back-illuminated CCD for coherent soft X-ray imaging

G. Beutier^a1, G. van der Laan^a2a3, A. Marty^a1 and F. Livet^a4

SP2M, CEA Grenoble, 17 avenue des Martyrs, 38054 Grenoble Cedex, France

Magnetic Spectroscopy Group, Daresbury Laboratory, Warrington WA4 4AD, UK

Diamond Light Source Ltd, Chilton, Didcot OX11 0DE, UK

SIMaP, INPG-UJF, UMR CNRS 5266, BP 75, 38402 Saint Martin d'Hères, France

Abstract

Direct-illumination CCDs find increasing use in coherent X-ray imaging due to their good spatial resolution and signal-to-noise ratio. These CCDs offer a high quantum efficiency for soft X-rays near the 3d transition metal L edges. We compare front- and back-illuminated CCDs and describe a method to obtain images with a large dynamic range (five orders of magnitude) and high spatial resolution. Back-illuminated CCDs are resistant to radiation damage at the soft X-ray energies and provide a true 13.5 μm pixel resolution. High quality diffraction images are obtained in magnetic studies from metallic multilayer structures in reflection geometry.

(Received July 18 2007)

(Accepted January 31 2008)

(Online publication March 28 2008)

PACS:

• 07.85.Fv – X- and gamma-ray sources, mirrors, gratings, and detectors;
• 07.85.Qe – Synchrotron radiation instrumentation;
• 95.55.Aq – Charge-coupled devices, image detectors, and IR detector arrays;
• 42.25.Kb – Coherence

frederic.livet@ltpcm.inpg.fr