Feasibility study of a gas electron multiplier detector as an X-Ray image sensor

For its ease of manufacture, flexible geometry, and cheap manufacturing cost, the gas electron multiplier (GEM) detector can be used as an X-ray image sensor. For this purpose, we acquired relative detection efficiencies and suggested a method to increase the detection efficiency in order to study the possibility of using a GEM detector as an X-ray image sensor. The GEM detector system is composed of GEM foils, the instrument system, the gas system, and the negative power supply. The instrument system consists of an A225 charge sensitive preamp, an A206 discriminator, and a MCA8000D multichannel analyzer. For the gas system, argon gas was mixed with CO2 in a ratio of 8:2, and for the negative 2,000 volts, a 3106D power supply was used. A CsI-coated GEM foil was used to increase the detection efficiency. Fe-55 was used as an X-ray source, and the relative efficiency was acquired by using the ratio of the efficiency of the GEM detector to that of the CdTe detector. The total count method and the energy spectrum method were used to calculate the relative efficiency. The relative detection efficiency of the GEM detector for Fe-55 by using total count method was 32%, and the relative detection efficiencies were 5, 43, 33, 37, 35, and 36%, respectively, for 2-, 3-, 4-, 5-, 6-, and 7- keV energy spectrum by using the energy spectrum method. In conclusion, we found that the detection efficiency of the two-layered GEM detector is insufficient for use as an X-ray image sensor, so we suggest a CsI-coated GEM foil to increase the efficiency, with resulting value being increased to 41%.