Detectors for the Imaging and Medical Beam Line at the Australian Synchrotron

Abstract

The Australian Synchrotron Imaging and Medical Beam Line (IMBL) began phased commissioning in late 2008 and was opened for Users this year (November, 2012). It will provide Australia with an unrivaled facility for x-ray imaging and radiotherapy research covering a wide range of applications in disease studies, treatments, and revealing physiological processes. The clinical research drivers for IMBL rely on the facility's ability to support high spatial and contrast resolution imaging.The wide variety of demands for x-ray imaging with IMBL cannot be covered with any single detector system. A list of six detector categories was drawn up after assessing the techniques that are most likely to be used during our first years of operation. Detectors in this list will cover the fields of view, resolutions (both spatial and contrast), and frame rates required for a majority of the experiments. We present the six detectors within these categories. One detector system is the topic of a development project with the goal of producing a large field of view high aspect ratio system. Some initial design ideas are presented.