MerlinX
The Merlin photon counting detector system with Medipix3 ASIC packs a lot in for its size. With a vast range of applications, Merlin is a high performance X-Ray imaging detector that requires no additional cooling system, and being around the size of a mobile phone, is easily installed into small spaces. The system is supplied with a LabView GUI to get you up and running quickly while TANGO and EPICS drivers have been written to allow you to integrate it into your system.
MerlinX Installations
| Title | Address | Description |
|---|---|---|
Advanced Photon Source | Building 401, Argonne National Laboratory, 9700 S Cass Ave, Lemont, IL 60439, USA | Detector Installed – Visit the group website |
Beijing Synchrotron Radiation Facility | 19 Yuquan Rd, Shijingshan Qu, Beijing Shi, China | Detector Installed – Visit the group website |
Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source | Synchrotron Dr, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA | Detector Installed – Visit the group website |
Diamond Light Source | Diamond House, Harwell Science and Innovation Campus, Fermi Ave, Didcot OX11 0DE, UK | Detector Installed – Visit the group website |
University of Glasgow | Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK | Detector Installed – Visit the group website |
University of Göttingen | Wilhelmsplatz 1, 37073 Göttingen, Germany | Detector Installed – Visit the group website |
Pohang Accelerator Laboratory | 80 Jigok-ro 127beon-gil, Hyogok-dong, Nam-gu, Pohang, Gyeongsangbuk-do, South Korea | Detector Installed – Visit the group website |
MAX IV Laboratory | Fotongatan 2, 224 84 Lund, Sweden | Detector Installed – Visit the group website |
National Synchrotron Light Source II | Upton, NY 11973, USA | Detector Installed – Visit the group website |
University of Oxford | Oxford OX1 2JD, UK | Detector Installed – Visit the group website |
Super Photon ring-8 GeV | 1-chōme-1 Kōto, Sayo, Sayo District, Hyogo 679-5198, Japan | Detector Installed – Visit the group website |
Synchrotron Soleil | L'Orme des Merisiers, 91190 Saint-Aubin, France | Detector Installed – Visit the group website |
Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility | 239 Zhangheng Rd, Pudong Xinqu, China | Detector Installed – Visit the group website |
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory | 2575 Sand Hill Rd, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA | Detector Installed – Visit the group website |
Figure. Reconstructed phase image using the Medipix3 detector MerlinX at Brookhaven National Laboratory’s NSLS-II. of a Au nanoparticle array. Particle size is 50 nm and field of view 1 x 1 um^2.
Applications
Ptychography
Beamline alignment ‘electronic slit’
Gi-SAXS
Coherent X-ray Diffraction
Tomography
Surface Diffraction
Phase Contrast Imaging
Pump and probe experiments
Key Features & Benefits
- Photon Counting – Zero Dark Noise
- No Dead Time Between Frames
- Spectroscopic Imaging
- No External Cooling System
- Compact Size
- 55 μm pitch
- 21,000 – 900 Hz depending on bit depth
- 5 – 17 keV Range
- 1, 6, 12 and 24 Bit Counter Modes
MerlinX is fast. Allocated to each of its 55µm pixels are 2 x 12 bit counters which allows continuous read/write with no dead time between frames. MerlinX is available with either as MerlinX – a single Medipix3 chip (256×256 pixels) or Merlin4X – a quad (512×512 pixels) system and has excellent sensitivity in the 5-17 keV range. The detector is installed at beamlines and laboratories globally, including several at NSLS-II, APS, DLS, PAL, SOLEIL, DLS, BSRF, and Spring-8.
Performance
Interface/MerlinX Readout Electronics
Specifications
Rapid readout
Direct detection
Effectively noise free
Dynamic range
Charge Summing Mode (CSM)
Communication between pixels designed to mitigate charge sharing effects for maximising both DQE and resolution.
No beamstop requirements
Software
Publications
- Rueff, J.-P., Ablett, J. M., Ceolin, D., Prieur, D., Moreno, T., Baledent, V., Lassalle-Kaiser, B., Rault, J. E., Simon, M. & Shukla, A. (2015). J. Synchrotron Rad. 22, 175-179. “The GALAXIES beamline at the SOLEIL synchrotron: inelastic X-ray scattering and photoelectron spectroscopy in the hard X-ray range.”
- Hanfei Yan, Nathalie Bouet, Juan Zhou, Xiaojing Huang, Evgeny Nazaretski, Weihe Xu, Alex P Cocco, Wilson K S Chiu, Kyle S Brinkman and Yong S Chu. (2018) , , Multimodal hard x-ray imaging with resolution approaching 10 nm for studies in material science.”
- Yong Cai, Sugunya Monsalud, Rudolf Jaffé, Ronald D Jones,Journal of Chromatography A, Volume 876, Issues 1–2, 2000, Pages 147-155, “Gas chromatographic determination of organomercury following aqueous derivatization with sodium tetraethylborate and sodium tetraphenylborate: Comparative study of gas chromatography coupled with atomic fluorescence spectrometry, atomic emission spectrometry and mass spectrometry.”
- Hanfei Yan, Xiaojing Huang, Nathalie Bouet, Juan Zhou, Evgeny Nazaretski, and Yong S. Chu, “Achieving diffraction-limited nanometer-scale X-ray point focus with two crossed multilayer Laue lenses: alignment challenges,” Opt. Express 25, 25234-25242 (2017)
- Hiroshi Daimon. Science Journal of the Physical Society of Japan, 87, 061001 (2018) “Overview of Three-Dimensional Atomic-Resolution Holography and Imaging Techniques: Recent Advances in Local-Structure”.
