Parallel readout multiwire proportional chambers for time resolved X-ray diffraction experiments

Linear position sensitive detectors have been used for a number of years in X-ray diffraction studies from various types of muscle under different physiological conditions. Such detectors are mainly based on either an internal (RC) delay line or an external (LC) delay line for decoding positional information; the counting speed of the detectors is optimally matched to the available photon flux from laboratory based X-ray cameras. However, X-ray cameras based on synchrotron radiation provide photon fluxes which are greater by about three orders of magnitude. We describe in this paper an X-ray detection system based on parallel read-out from a multiwire proportional chamber which offers high counting speeds and is designed to perform time slicing experiments with time resolutions down to 1 ms. (orig.)