Eiger: a single-photon counting x-ray detector

Eiger is a single-photon counting x-ray pixel detector being developed at the Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI) for applications at synchrotron light sources. It follows the widely utilized and successful Pilatus detector. The main features of Eiger are a pixel size of 75 × 75 μm2, high frame rate capability of 22 kHz and negligible dead time between frames of 4 μs. This article contains a detailed description of Eiger detector systems, from the 500 kpixel single-module detector to large-area multi-modules systems. The calibration and performance of the first 500 kpixel system that is in routine user operation are also presented. Furthermore, a method of calibrating the energy of single-photon counting detectors along the detector gain axis is introduced. This approach has the advantage that the detector settings can be optimized at all energies for count rate capabilities. Rate capabilities of the system are reported for energies between 6 and 16 keV.