title: Hard disk drive based microsecond X-ray chopper for characterization of ionization chambers and photodiodes.
abstract: A fast X-ray chopper capable of producing ms long X-ray pulses with a typical rise time of few μs was realized. It is ideally suited to investigate the temporal response of X-ray detectors with response times of the order of μs to ms, in particular, any kind of ionization chambers and large area photo diodes. The drive mechanism consists of a brushless DC motor and driver electronics from a common hard disk drive, keeping the cost at an absolute minimum. Due to its simple construction and small dimensions, this chopper operates at home lab based X-ray tubes and synchrotron radiation sources as well. The dynamics of the most important detectors used in time resolved X-ray absorption spectroscopy, namely, ionization chambers and Passivated Implanted Planar Silicon photodiodes, were investigated in detail. The results emphasize the applicability of this X-ray chopper.
authors.affiliation: Bergische Universität Wuppertal, Gaußstraße 20, Wuppertal 42119, Germany.
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Müller
authors.affiliation: Bergische Universität Wuppertal, Gaußstraße 20, Wuppertal 42119, Germany.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lützenkirchen-Hecht
authors.affiliation: Bergische Universität Wuppertal, Gaußstraße 20, Wuppertal 42119, Germany.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Frahm