Low-energy X-ray detection with an in-vacuum PILATUS detector

The feasibility of using PILATUS single-X-ray-photon counting detectors for long-wavelength macromolecular crystallography was investigated by carrying out a series of experiments at Diamond Light Source. A water-cooled PILATUS 100k detector was tested in vacuum with monochromatic 3 keV X-rays on the Diamond test beamline B16. Effects of detector cooling on noise performance, energy calibration and threshold trimming were investigated. When detecting 3 keV X-rays, the electronic noise of the analogue output of pixel preamplifiers forces the threshold to be set at a higher level than the 50% energy level recommended to minimize charge-sharing effects. The influence of threshold settings at low X-ray energy was studied by characterizing the detector response to a collimated beam of 3 keV X-rays scanned across several pixels. The relationship between maximum count rate and minimum energy threshold was investigated separately for various detector gain settings.