Calibration and X-ray spectroscopy with silicon CCDs

It is shown that the novel mode of operation of charge coupled devices (CCDs) allows a new method of measuring the X-ray energy-to-charge conversion factor, without requiring externally calibrated circuits etc., thereby reducing possible contributions to systematic uncertainties in this measurement. In addition, the low noise operation of CCDs is shown to lead to possibilities for measuring the Fano factor in silicon with improved precision. Advances in CCD X-ray detection performance are described, including energy resolutions of 80 eV FWHM at a temperature of 180 K, and detection efficiencies of greater than 90%. Such improvements are shown to have potential benefit for various X-ray spectroscopic applications.