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Cameras for soft x-ray applications

27 July 2018 | Product
by Ian Michael

Princeton Instruments has introduced several new, high-speed, ultra-low-noise cameras engineered for vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) and soft x-ray direct-detection applications. The SOPHIA-XO camera platform is specially designed for scientific applications such as VUV/EUV/XUV imaging, x-ray diffraction, x-ray microscopy, x-ray holography, x-ray spectroscopy and x-ray plasma.

The new SOPHIA-XO cameras utilise back-illuminated CCDs for direct detection of a wide range of VUV and x-rays (~5 eV to 30 keV). These new “XO” camera models, which are extensions of Princeton Instruments’ popular SOPHIA® product line, feature 2048× 2048 and 4096 × 4096 formats with 100 % fill factor, up to 150,000 e full well, >95 % peak QE and read noise as low as 3.5 e rms. A 4-port, 16 MHz readout architecture allows the new cameras to deliver more than three full frames per second—7–10× faster than previous 2-port cameras.

The SOPHIA-XO is available either with UV-enhanced coating for VUV applications or with no AR coating for soft x-ray applications. All SOPHIA-XO cameras have Princeton Instruments’ ArcTec™, a proprietary technology that uses air or liquid to thermoelectrically cool to –90 °C.

The SOPHIA-XO cameras suitable for myriad large field-of-view x-ray applications in laboratory, synchrotron and OEM systems. Interfacing with UHV instrumentation is easy and convenient via a rotatable industry-standard CF flange with a high-vacuum seal design.

SOPHIA-XO cameras are supported by Princeton Instruments’ 64-bit LightField® imaging and spectroscopy software, available as a system option.