Speaker
Description
The framework for control and data processing of hyperspectral cameras, presented at iWoRiD 2018 [1] has been further developed into a flexible general-purpose toolkit for multiple hyperspectral X-ray detector types. We now demonstrate the result of this continued development through a practical application in synchrotron-based nano-imaging, enabled by the toolkit.
The methods originally developed for use with the SLcam [2] at Ghent University have been generalised to work with any hyperspectral detector by exploiting the modular build-up. A small detector-specific software module extracts raw frames and publishes them in a network stream. This stream serves as input for the spectral processing framework, which converts the raw frames into a stream of photon events by applying the detector calibration files and performing charge-sharing corrections if required.
A comprehensive set of analysis and diagnostic tools is available to monitor detector and experiment performance, guarantee operation safety and generate the detector-specific calibration files required by the toolkit. The processing chain provides plug-in functionality for hardware- or detector-specific pre-processing of raw frames and post-processing or filtering of the photon event stream.
All functionality of the toolkit is split up into separate functional modules, which can be distributed over a large processing cluster if required for easy scalability, though a single contemporary workstation PC should suffice for data rates up to 4 Gbit/s. Additionally, all control and monitoring is also network-enabled for ease of operation and use by multiple simultaneous operators.
This toolkit has been applied during multiple recent beamtimes using two cameras: the pnCCD-based SLcam [2] and the higher-energy CdTe CMOS-based HEXITEC system [3]. During these beamtimes, both systems were used to perform single-shot hyperspectral ptychography at the I13-1 branchline at Diamond Light Source using a broadband pink beam. The performance, control and reliability of the toolkit proved to be instrumental in enabling this novel application of hyperspectral X-ray cameras.
The toolkit has further been tested using the HEXITEC Quad, a 2x2 tiled variant of the HEXITEC system, with additional detector systems being included in the near future.
[1] F. Van Assche et al., J. Instr. 13(11) (2018), C11015
[2] O. Scharf et al., Anal. Chem. 83 (2011), 2532-2538
[3] L. Jones et al., Nucl. Instr. Meth. Phys. Res. A. 604 (2009), 34-37
The authors acknowledge funding from the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO Research Project G0A0417N) and Diamond Light Source for time on beamline I13-1 under proposals MG22099-1, MT20987-1 and MG23140-1.
