Experiences with CCD detectors on a home X‐ray source

Charged‐coupled device (CCD) detectors have been widely accepted as detectors for collecting X‐ray diffraction images. The CCD detector offers a sensitive detection system well suited for diffraction analysis and, compared with other detectors on the market, a relatively rapid system for read‐out of the collected image. The two predominant markets for the CCD detector have been those in which relatively short exposure times are used, i.e. small‐molecule X‐ray diffraction and large‐molecule crystallography at high‐intensity synchrotron sources. CCD detectors have not been commonly used on rotating‐anode X‐ray sources for large‐molecule crystallography. Comparison of the performance of the CCD detectors with commercially available image‐plate detectors shows that the CCD detectors function in a similar fashion to image‐plate‐based detectors.