Area x-ray detector based on a lens-coupled charge-coupled device

An area x-ray detector constructed using commercially available “off-the-shelf” parts is described and its performance is characterized. The detector consists of a 1024×1024pixel charge-coupled device (CCD) camera optically coupled to x-ray sensitive phosphor screen using a standard 35 mm camera lens. The conversion efficiency, spatial nonuniformity, spatial resolution and the detective quantum efficiency of the detector have been measured. Also shown is an example of data taken with the detector. The detector is a relatively low-cost device suitable for a wide variety of quantitative x-ray experiments where the input area need not be larger than about 70 mm across.