Spectrum measurement using discrete detector arrays

✍ Scribed by Birkinshaw, Keith

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 431 KB
• Volume: 33
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1076-5174
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1096-9888(199801)33:1<64::aid-jms610>3.0.co;2-1

✦ Synopsis

Modern spectrometers can produce highly resolved spectra, but this ability has not yet been matched by an ability to measure them efficiently and for instruments such as a spatially dispersive mass spectrometer it is in the development of high-performance focal plane detectors (FPDs) where there are enormous gains in efficiency to be achieved. In this paper two key questions are addressed : (a) how much information does a 1D spectrum or 2D image contain ? ; and (b) can a given FPD capture all this information ? In answering these questions, issues of performance, data quality and technology limitations of 1D and 2D arrays of counters arise naturally. A procedure is evolved for comparing the performance of a detector and a spectrometer which is not limited to spatially dispersive instruments.