The PILATUS 1M detector.

Area of Science:

• X-ray crystallography
• Detector physics
• Materials science

Background:

• Macromolecular crystallography demands sensitive, high-resolution detectors.
• Synchrotrons provide intense X-ray sources crucial for crystallographic studies.
• Advancements in hybrid pixel detector technology are essential for pushing scientific boundaries.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce and characterize the PILATUS 1M detector for macromolecular crystallography.
• To evaluate the performance of a large-area, single photon counting detector in a synchrotron environment.
• To demonstrate the feasibility of using silicon pixel detectors for refined electron density map determination.

Main Methods:

• The PILATUS 1M detector, a modular system with over one million pixels, was designed and manufactured at PSI.
• Charge collection properties of the silicon sensor were studied for single photon counting applications.
• Data acquisition was performed in both conventional oscillation and fine-varphi-slicing modes at the Swiss Light Source.
• Data processing involved applying corrections and merging data to obtain R-factors.

Main Results:

• The PILATUS 1M detector, covering 21 cm x 24 cm, operates in single photon counting mode with a readout time of 6.7 ms.
• Testing at the Swiss Light Source demonstrated successful data collection in various modes.
• Processing conventional data from a thaumatin crystal yielded satisfactory merging R-factors of approximately 8.5%.

Conclusions:

• The PILATUS 1M detector represents a significant advancement for macromolecular crystallography.
• This silicon pixel detector enables the determination of refined electron density maps for biological crystals.
• The detector's performance validates its use in cutting-edge crystallographic research.