First user results from the HOTWAXS detector system

Over the past 10 years combined techniques such as small angle and wide angle X-ray scattering (SAXS/WAXS) and X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) with X-ray diffraction (XRD), have become the mainstay of time resolved experimental studies carried out at synchrotron radiation sources (SRS). However, these techniques have been limited by the detectors used to measure the wide angle scattering/diffraction pattern, and therefore restrict the dynamic experiments that can be studied. The HOTWAXS (high overall throughput wide-angle X-ray scattering) detector project was designed to address this issue by producing a position sensitive, parallax free, high count rate, photon counting detector based on microstrip gas chamber (MSGC) technology. The initial experiments, performed on station 16.1 of the Daresbury SRS, with a high density polyethylene sample, confirmed the local count rate per channel to be 1times10⁶ counts per second. A global count rate over the 512 channel detector of 27times10⁶ counts per second was also measured for this sample. Time resolved experiments on stations 2.1 and 9.3 with real ´user´ samples have also been performed, the results of which are presented.