Abstract

The storage-phosphor detector system was originally developed for medical imaging. Because of its extremely low background level, it is now supplanting the use of film as a detector in some experiments. A storage phosphor consists of a thin layer (~120 µm) of a photostimulable phosphor (BaFBr:Eu⁺²) embedded in a binder and supported on a thin layer of plastic. Its sensitivity to x rays is determined by its absorption cross section and extends from below 1 keV up to 100 keV. It is an integrating area detector (250 mm × 200 mm) with a large dynamic range (> 10⁵) and a high DQE (> 80%). This presentation will concentrate on the use of storage-phosphor detector systems in x-ray diffraction experiments and will discuss their noise characteristics at low exposure levels and their spatial resolution.

© 1990 Optical Society of America