Beamlines: Detectors

This lecture covers the historical development of detector types, including photographic plates, scintillators, photomultiplier tubes, and Si-photodiodes. It explains the operation of point, microstrip, and area detectors, as well as amplifier and comparator circuits. The lecture also delves into the maximum count rates in photon-counting detectors, the concept of recovery time, and the need for software correction. Finally, it discusses hybrid photon-counting detectors, highlighting their unique features such as high dynamic range, perfect linearity, zero dark noise, and zero readout noise, which make them ideal for scattering and crystallography experiments at synchrotrons.