Detection of proton-induced C(K α) X-rays with Si(Li) detectors

Abstract

Proton-induced X-rays (PIX) have been shown to be valuable in investigations of semiconductor detector characteristics for detection of low energy X-rays. The major advantage of PIX over electron and X-ray excitation is the virtual absence of background radiation. For the detection of proton-induced C(K α) X-rays by Si(Li) detectors, the influence of detector bias voltage and, hence, the applied electric field on the detector efficiency, the fraction of the X-ray energy detected and the width of the peak is presented. In addition, the Si(Li) detectors have been shown to exhibit a very linear relationship between X-ray energy and detector pulse-height down to X-ray energies of 277 eV [i.e., C(K α) X-rays)].