Recent developments and applications on electron-bombarded CCDs in image intensifier tubes

Richard, J. C.; Vittot, Michel

doi:10.1016/0168-9002(92)90731-i

Cited by 6 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…5,6 In previous studies, untreated and treated backside-thinned CCDs have been used for electron detection, with promising results for electrons in the 1-20 keV range. [5][6][7][8] For example, the results of the biased flash-gate CCD study show that the average quantum efficiency increases from less than 1% for an untreated CCD to nearly 40% for a backside-treated CCD at an electron-beam energy of 1 keV. Although these backside surface treatments have generated good electron or UV quantum efficiency, they suffer variously from problems of yield, response stability, hysteresis, and long-term reliability.…”

Section: ͓S0003-6951͑98͒03549-9͔mentioning

confidence: 99%

Direct detection and imaging of low-energy electrons with delta-doped charge-coupled devices

Nikzad

Smith

et al. 1998

Applied Physics Letters

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We report the use of delta-doped charge-coupled devices ͑CCDs͒ for direct detection of electrons in the 50-1500 eV energy range. We show that modification of the CCD back surface by molecular beam epitaxy can greatly improve sensitivity to low-energy electrons by introducing an atomically abrupt dopant profile to eliminate the dead layer. Using delta-doped CCDs, we have extended the energy threshold for detection of electrons by over an order of magnitude. We have also measured high gain in response to low-energy electrons using delta-doped CCDs. The effect of multiple electron hole pair production on the observed signals is discussed. Electrons have been directly imaged with a delta-doped CCD in the 250-750 eV range. © 1998 American Institute of Physics. ͓S0003-6951͑98͒03549-9͔There is great interest in detecting and imaging electrons, especially low-energy electrons ͑tens of eV to thousands of eV͒ for scientific spectroscopy applications, such as low-energy electron diffraction spectroscopy and reflection electron energy-loss spectroscopy at reflection high-energy electron diffraction energies. 1,2 In addition, there are space science applications for low-mass, low-power plasma detectors and imagers. Imaging systems for low-energy particles generally use microchannel plate electron multipliers followed by position-sensitive solid-state detectors, or phosphors and position-sensitive photon detectors. These systems work well and can process up to 10 6 electrons/s; however, they have difficulties with gain stability, require high voltages, and the dynamic range and spatial resolution of these compound systems is considerably less than that of a solidstate imaging detector.Because of their high resolution, linearity, and large dynamic range, silicon charge-coupled devices ͑CCDs͒ could make major advances in particle detection. CCDs have been used to meet the needs of a wide range of scientific imaging applications which require accurate photometric imaging at low light levels with high dynamic range. They have been remarkably successful as imagers of x-ray, UV, visible, and near-IR photons. 3 As low-energy particle detectors and imagers, CCDs can make a great impact in many scientific fields. However, their use as particle detectors has been hampered by the inherent problems existing in the frontsideilluminated CCDs. Both the rapid radiation degradation caused by energetic electrons passing through the frontside gates and gate insulator structure, and the large dead layer to the low-energy electrons presented by the thick frontsidegate structure make frontside-illuminated CCDs unsuitable as electron detectors.While backside-illuminated, thinned CCDs offer the possibility of detecting low-energy electrons, they inherently possess a back surface dead layer associated with the backside potential well ͑caused by positive charge at the interface between Si and SiO 2 ). The problem is similar to the detection of UV photons because a significant fraction of the energy of incident electrons is deposited within a few hundr...

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Section: ͓S0003-6951͑98͒03549-9͔mentioning

confidence: 99%

Direct detection and imaging of low-energy electrons with delta-doped charge-coupled devices

Nikzad

Smith

et al. 1998

Applied Physics Letters

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The Megapixel EBCCD: A high-resolution imaging tube sensitive to single photons

Buontempo

Chiodi²,

Dalinenko

et al. 1998

Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A:

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A h ybrid image-intensier tube, suitable for extremely low-light imaging, has been tested. This device is based on an Electron-Bombarded CCD chip (EBCCD) with 1024 1024 sensitive pixels. The tube, which has a photocathode diameter of 40 mm, is gateable and zoomable, with an image magnication varying from 0.62 to 1.3. The high gain (about 4000 collected electrons per photoelectron at the operational voltage of 15 kV) and the relatively low noise (180 electrons per pixel at 10 MHz pixelreadout frequency), allows single-photoelectron signals to be separated from noise with a signal-to-noise ratio greater than 10. By applying an appropriate threshold on the signal amplitude, the background can almost be eliminated, with a loss of few percent in single-photoelectron counting. High inner gain, low noise, single-photoelectron sensitivity, and high spatial resolution make the EBCCD imaging tube a unique device, attractive for many applications in high-energy physics, astrophysics, biomedical diagnostics.

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Horáček

1998

Journal of Computer-Assisted Microscopy

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Recent developments and applications on electron-bombarded CCDs in image intensifier tubes

Cited by 6 publications

References 1 publication

Direct detection and imaging of low-energy electrons with delta-doped charge-coupled devices

Direct detection and imaging of low-energy electrons with delta-doped charge-coupled devices

The Megapixel EBCCD: A high-resolution imaging tube sensitive to single photons

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