A Computer Controlled Television Detector for Light, X-Rays and Particles

A versatile, high resolution, software configurable, two-dimensional intensified vidicon quantum detector system has been developed for multiple research applications. A thin phosphor convertor allows the detection of X-rays below 20KeV and non-relativistic particles in addition to visible light, and a thicker scintillator can be used to detect X-rays up to 100KeV and relativistic particles. For rates of 100 to 105 events/sec the position of each event is computed and from 105 to 1012/sec the intensity at each pixel is determined. Faceplates may be changed to allow any active area from 1 to 40mm square, and active areas up to 200mm square are possible. The image is integrated in a digital memory on any software specified array size up to 4000 × 4000. The array size is selected to match the spatial resolution, which ranges from 10¿ to 100¿ depending on the operating mode, the active area, and the photon or particle energy. All scan and data acquisition parameters are under software control to allow optimal data collection for each application.