High speed imaging and spectroscopy of X-rays and particles with silicon detectors

Silicon detectors are widely used as high-performance sensors for photons from 1 eV energy up to hundreds of keV and as particle detectors for tracking, imaging and spectroscopy. In the visible domain CDDs, CMOS imagers and SiPMs are spread over a wide range of scientific applications. In the UV and X-ray range from 20 eV up to 20 keV the direct detection of the photons is usually donc on back-illuminated fully depleted, thus fully sensitive silicon detectors: Silicon Drift Detectors, pnCCDs and CMOS based Active Pixel Sensors or hybrid CMOS detectors. For higher X-ray energies, up to 1 MeV the signal conversion into visible photons is performed in scintillators coupled to light sensitive detectors. High spatial resolution direct electron detection for TEMs and SEMs are equally achieved with dedicated silicon sensors based on pnCCDs and DePFET active pixel sensors. The description of the physical limits of the measurement precision will be derived as well as the semiconductor device concepts to get as close as possible to these limits.

A variety of applications in basic and applied science will be shown:

• from astrophysics
• from synchrotron and X-ray Free Electron Laser science
• from material science
• from TEM science
• from planetary science