20 µs-resolved high-throughput X-ray photon correlation spectroscopy on a 500k pixel detector enabled by...

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Condensed Matter Physics
• Photon Science

Background:

• X-ray Photon Correlation Spectroscopy (XPCS) is a powerful technique for studying dynamics in materials.
• Characterizing fast dynamics in weakly scattering samples requires high-throughput data acquisition and analysis.
• Existing methods face challenges with the large data volumes generated by advanced detectors.

Purpose of the Study:

• To characterize the performance of the new 52 kHz Rigaku XSPA-500k detector for XPCS.
• To implement and evaluate a high-performance data workflow system for rapid XPCS data reduction.
• To demonstrate the utility of the system for diverse XPCS applications.

Main Methods:

• Performance characterization of the Rigaku XSPA-500k detector at the Advanced Photon Source (APS) beamline 8-ID-I.
• Deployment of a data workflow system integrating the APS data-management (DM) system and high-performance software.
• Real-time reduction of area-detector data to multi-tau and two-time correlation functions.
• Application of the workflow to various small-angle XPCS measurements.

Main Results:

• The XSPA-500k detector achieves a frame rate of 52 kHz, generating substantial data volumes (0.2 PB/day).
• The deployed workflow system enables near real-time data reduction, providing immediate feedback to experimenters.
• The system efficiently processes up to ~10^9 area-detector frames per day.
• Successful application to diverse XPCS measurements demonstrates system utility and performance.

Conclusions:

• The combination of the XSPA-500k detector, advanced software, and DM workflow system significantly enhances XPCS capabilities.
• This integrated system facilitates the study of dynamics in challenging samples, including those with weak scattering and fast dynamics.
• The near real-time feedback loop accelerates experimental design and data interpretation in XPCS.