Ultra-small-angle X-ray photon correlation spectroscopy using the Eiger detector.

Successful implementation of the single-photon-counting Eiger 500k pixel array detector for sub-millisecond X-ray photon correlation spectroscopy (XPCS) measurements in the ultra-small-angle scattering region is reported. The performance is demonstrated by measuring the dynamics of dilute silica colloids in aqueous solvents when the detector is operated at different counter depths, 4, 8 and 12 bit. In the fastest mode involving 4 bit parallel readout, a stable frame rate of 22 kHz is obtained that enabled measurement of intensity-intensity autocorrelation functions with good statistics down to the 50 µs range for a sample with sufficient scattering power. The high frame rate and spatial resolution together with large number of pixels of the detector facilitate the investigation of sub-millisecond dynamics over a broad length scale by multispeckle XPCS. This is illustrated by an example involving phoretic motion of colloids during the phase separation of the solvent.

Stimulated scintillation emission depletion X-ray imaging.

X-ray microtomography is a widely applied tool for noninvasive structure investigations. The related detectors are usually based on a scintillator screen for the fast in situ conversion of an X-ray image into an optical image. Spatial resolution of the latter is fundamentally diffraction limited. In this work, we introduce stimulated scintillation emission depletion (SSED) X-ray imaging where, similar to stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy, a depletion beam is applied to the scintillator screen to overcome the diffraction limit. The requirements for the X-ray source, the X-ray flux, the scintillator screen, and the STED beam were evaluated. Fundamental spatial resolution limits due to the spread of absorbed X-ray energy were estimated with Monte Carlo simulations. The SSED proof-of-concept experiments demonstrated 1) depletion of X-ray excited scintillation, 2) partial confinement of scintillating regions to sub-diffraction sized volumes, and 3) improvement of the imaging contrast by applying SSED.

STED properties of Ce3+, Tb3+, and Eu3+ doped inorganic scintillators.

Scintillator-based X-ray imaging is a powerful technique for noninvasive real-space microscopic structural investigation such as synchrotron-based computed tomography. The resolution of an optical image formed by scintillation emission is fundamentally diffraction limited. To overcome this limit, stimulated scintillation emission depletion (SSED) X-ray imaging, based on stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy, has been recently developed. This technique imposes new requirements on the scintillator material: efficient de-excitation by the STED-laser and negligible STED-laser excited luminescence. In this work, luminescence depletion was measured in several commonly-used Ce3+, Tb3+, and Eu3+ - doped scintillators using various STED lasers. The depletion of Tb3+ and Eu3+ via 4f-4f transitions was more efficient (Ps = 8…19 mW) than Ce3+ depletion via 5d-4f transitions (Ps = 43…45 mW). Main origins of STED-laser excited luminescence were one- and two-photon excitation, and scintillator impurities. LSO:Tb scintillator and a 628 nm cw STED-laser is the most promising combination for SSED satisfying the above-mentioned requirements.