Looking at single photons using hybrid detectors

The SLS detector group develops silicon hybrid detectors for X-ray applications used in synchrotron facilities all over the world. Both microstrip and pixel detectors with either single photon counting or charge integrating read out are being developed. Low noise charge integrating detectors can be operated in single photon regime, i.e. with low fluxes and high frame rates in order to detect on average less than one photon per cluster of 2×2 pixels. In this case, the analog signal read out for each single X-ray provides information about the energy of the photon. Moreover the signal from neighboring channels can be correlated in order to overcome or even take advantage of charge sharing. The linear charge collection model describing microstrip detectors and large pixels is unsuitable for the calibration of small pitch pixel detectors due to the large amount of charge sharing occurring also in the corner region. For this reason, the linear charge collection model is extended to the case of small pixels and tested with monochromatic X-ray data acquired using the 25 μm pitch MONCH and the 75 μm pitch JUNGFRAU detectors. The successful outcome of the calibration of the MONCH detector is proven by the high energy resolution of the spectrum obtained by accumulating the counts from more than 6000 channels after the correction of the gain mismatches using the proposed model.