Speaker
Description
In 2006 the STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory began the development of the High Energy X-ray Imaging Technology (HEXITEC) detector system. Over the subsequent decade the system has delivered exceptional spectroscopic performance of < 1 keV for hard X-ray energies (2 - 200 keV) using Cd(Zn)Te sensors. With a frame rate of 10 kHz the current system is able to deliver this spectroscopic performance up to photon fluxes of 10$^4$ ph s$^{-1}$ mm$^2$.
As light sources across the world undergo upgrades, gains in source brightness of the order of $\times 100$ and an increase in the number of high energy beam lines (>10 keV) mean that many of today's detector technologies, like HEXITEC, will be unable to support future science programmes. To meet these needs will require a new generation of detector technologies running at higher frame rates and making use of high-Z sensor materials.
In 2018 we began work on an upgrade of the HEXITEC detector system with the aim of delivering a spectroscopic imaging capability at future light sources. The HEXITEC$_{MHz}$ system aims to deliver the same high resolution spectroscopy but at a continuous frame rate of 1 MHz. At these rates spectroscopic imaging will be possible for hard X-rays at fluxes in excess of 10$^6$ ph s$^{-1}$ mm$^2$.
In this lecture I will review the current status of the HEXITEC technology, provide an update on the development of the HEXITEC$_{MHz}$ system as well as the work we have been doing to characterise the sensor materials that will be at the heart of these new imaging systems.
