Performance of the micro‐PIC gaseous area detector in small‐angle X‐ray scattering experiments

The application of a two‐dimensional photon‐counting detector based on a micro‐pixel gas chamber (µ‐PIC) to high‐resolution small‐angle X‐ray scattering (SAXS), and its performance, are reported. The µ‐PIC is a micro‐pattern gaseous detector fabricated by printed circuit board technology. This article describes the performance of the µ‐PIC in SAXS experiments at SPring‐8. A dynamic range of >10 5 was obtained for X‐ray scattering from a polystyrene sphere solution. A maximum counting rate of up to 5 MHz was observed with good linearity and without saturation. For a diffraction pattern of collagen, weak peaks were observed in the high‐angle region in one accumulation of photons.