Transforming X-ray detection with hybrid photon counting detectors

Abstract

Hybrid photon counting (HPC) detectors have radically transformed basic research at synchrotron light sources since 2006. They excel at X-ray diffraction applications in the energy range from 2 to 100 keV. The main reasons for their superiority are the direct detection of individual photons and the accurate determination of scattering and diffraction intensities over an extremely high dynamic range. The detectors were first adopted in macromolecular crystallography where they revolutionized data collection. They were soon also used for small-angle scattering, coherent scattering, powder X-ray diffraction, spectroscopy and increasingly high-energy applications. Here, we will briefly survey the history of HPC detectors, explain their technology and then show in detail how improved detection has transformed a wide range of experimental techniques. We will end with an outlook to the future, which will probably see HPC technology find even broader use, for example, in electron microscopy and medical applications. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Fifty years of synchrotron science: achievements and opportunities’.

On the evolution of the quality of macromolecular models in the PDB

“…The proposed P Q1 (t,d) and P Q1 (t) measures manifest the overall attitude of authors toward the quality of the PDB: Each next deposited structure should be better than the average previous deposit. Each new quality metric [20], visualization technique [31], set of restraints [32], validation algorithm [33], hardware improvement [34], or software update [35] makes it easier to produce good quality structures and to avoid simple mistakes. In an effort to promote constant improvement of overall PDB quality, it would be a desirable ideal to expect that newly added models are above the current average.…”

ID30A-3 (MASSIF-3) – a beamline for macromolecular crystallography at the ESRF with a small intense beam

“…ID23-1 (Nurizzo et al, 2006), ID23-2 (Flot et al, 2010), ID29 (de Sanctis et al, 2012), ID30B (McCarthy et al, 2018)] for the much more time-consuming step of the optimized collection of full diffraction data sets. However, the advent of fast hybrid photon-counting detectors and shutterless data collection (Fö rster et al, 2019) greatly reduced the time needed for the collection of high-quality diffraction data sets and therefore this concept was modified. MASSIF-1 is now a beamline dedicated to completely automatic MX experiments (Bowler et al, 2015).…”

Accurate high-resolution single-crystal diffraction data from a Pilatus3 X CdTe detector

“…The introduction of third-generation synchrotron radiation facilities over the past 20 years has revolutionized X-ray science in terms of beam flux and time resolution of experiments. This increased flux has not always been followed by a similar increase in detection capacity and accuracy, but with modern pixel-array detectors this is rapidly improving (Fö rster et al, 2019). One of the most commonly used detector families is the DECTRIS Pilatus, of which the current version, Pilatus3, was released with silicon sensor material in 2012.…”