Surface contamination of the charge-coupled device

An experimental method to study the influence of surface contamination of a thinned, backside illuminated charge-coupled device (CCD) upon its quantum efficiency in soft X-ray region is suggested. A transmission grating spectrometer (TGS). in which the transmission grating is coupled to a thinned, backside illuminated charge coupled device, is used to measure the continuum X-ray emission from the end of cylindrical target irradiated by laser. In the measured spectra, only the carbon K absorption edge at wavelength of 4.4 nm due to condensation of the vacuum oil on the CCD surface is clearly seen. The surface contamination is considered as an effective 'carbon filter' and the filter absorption to correct the quantum efficiency of the CCD camera is taken into account. The effective thickness of the carbon filter is determined by comparing the jump height of the measured spectra at 4.4 nm with those of the carbon absorption coefficient curves obtained from various carbon thickness. The accuracy of this method is tested by comparing the X-ray spectrum measured by the TGS with that obtained by a soft X-ray spectrometer