Well, Bigjoemonger explaind already very well. One addition from my side: preamps do what they are designed to do (unlike politicians). But any kind of electronic circuit you may have in mind, never expect a S/N increase, it is quite the opposite!
Well, that depends primarily on the energy of your x-rays. High energy x-rays will scatter less than low energy x-rays, but show more Compton and even pair building above 1MeV.
I am not sure if scintillators are an alternative, as we want to achieve an energy resolution of approx. 300eV (to separate Cu Ka from Kb). Multiple diodes are in considaration.
I have successfully tested my read-out & data acquisition electronics for the Moxtek XPIN-XT Detector. I cooled the PIN diode below -30°C and found an energy resolution better than 300eV (@8keV) up to 50k cts/sec.
Right now I am looking for diodes for line-shaped beams, i.e. about 14mm x 2 to...
for this budget you might have a look for the Xenon filled Contamat FHT111M, which also can detect some alpha particles. I am not sure if it is still produced.
I have one for my purposes still working well.
Detecting alphas is more a question of the entrance window, than the detector type. It...
Hello,
to your first question: absorbing or stopping x-rays is not only a question of their intensity, but also of the energy or energy spectrum of the incident rays!
soft x-rays (<20keV) are stopped sufficiently by a 2mm thick tungsten (W), however keep in mind the mechanism of absorption...
Hello Daniel-Dane,
depending on the highest Energy and the energy resolution you want to detect/resolve a Si-PIN or Si drift detector can be the right choice, however, for lab measurements usually N-cooled Germanium detectors are used.
We (Photron-X GmbH) have Si-PIN detectors from Moxtek...
... it can also be used the other way round - i.e. to derive structural parameters from a sample, e.g. distances between electron densities (=d) using a known wavelength (=lamda).
This is used in diffraction experiments (XRD) like in crystallography or in small angle x-ray scattering (SAXS).