The development of a new X-ray image intensifier for X-ray diffraction studies

The development is described of a new X-ray image intensifier which utilises a demountable caesium iodide low density cathode and a large area (120 mm diameter) channel plate multiplier to generate high photon gains with high spatial resolution. The spatial resolution has been demonstrated at approximately 10 line pairs/mm with a quantum efficiency of 11.5% for 6 keV X-rays and a quantum gain (number of visible photons out per detected X-ray) of 8 x 106. Improvements in the cathode mountings are expected to increase these figures to the design values of 108 for the gain and 50% for the quantum efficiency. (author)