A 500-MHz x-ray counting system with a silicon avalanche photodiode

In the present measurements using a Si-APD X-ray detector and a 500-MHz counting system, the maximum output rate of 3.3x108 s-1 was achieved for 8-keV X-rays in beamline BL-14A of the Photon Factory. A small Si-APD of 4-pF electric capacity was used as the detector device in order to output a pulse of a width shorter than 2 ns on the baseline. For processing the fast pulses, the discriminator and the scaler having a throughput of >500 MHz, were prepared. Since the acceleration frequency at the PF ring was 500.1 MHz and the empty-bunch spacing was 12/312 bunches per circumference, the expected maximum rate was 4.8x108s-1 according to the counting model for a pulsed photon source. The reason why the present system did not reach the expected value was the baseline shift at the amplifier outputs. The rise of +0.2 V was observed at a discriminator output of 3.3x108 s-1, while the pulse height was lower than 0.2 V. The baseline shift was caused by an AC coupling circuit in the amplifier. If a DC coupling circuit can be used for the amplifier, instead of the AC coupling circuit, or an active adjustment to compensate the baseline shift is installed, the counting system will show an ideal response. Although the present system including NIM modules was not so compact, we would like to develop a new fast-counting circuit for a Si-APD array detector of more than 100 channels of small pixels, in near future. (author)