Focal plane detection

A state-of-the-art description of broadband ultrafast infrared pulse generation and multichannel CCD and IR focal plane detection methods has been given in this chapter. A few poignant examples of how these techniques can be used to extract molecular vibrational energy transfer rates, photochemical reaction and electron transfer mechanisms, and to control vibrational excitation in complex systems were also described. The author hopes that more advanced measurements of chemical, material, and biochemical systems will be made with higher time and spectral resolution using multichannel infrared detectors as they become available to the scientific research community. 

In focal-plane detectors, the simultaneous detection of all spatially dispersed multiplex detection) ions is achieved, resulting in several orders of improvement in detection efficiency over that of focal-point detectors [87]. A photographic plate is the earliest example of focal-plane detection which in the past was used in conjunction with Mattauch-Herzog double-focusing mass spectrometers. 

Kidder L H, Levin I W, Lewis E N, Kleiman V D and Heilweil E J 1997 Mercury cadmium telluride focal-plane array detection for mid-infrared Fourier-transform spectroscopic imaging Opt. Lett. 22 742-4... 

The array system is discussed in Chapter 29. With array detection, resolution of m/z values depends both on the analyzer and the collector. Historically, the method for recording ions dispersed in space was to use a photographic plate, which was placed in the focal plane such that all ions struck the photographic plate simultaneously but at different positions along the plate, depending on m/z value. This method of detection is now rarely used because of the inconvenience of having to develop a photographic plate. 

The schlieren microscope is able to detect refractive index variations to six decimal places. Any small difference in optical path (index difference, film thickness, etc) is very precisely detected by the schlieren microscope, especially in the Dodd modification. It is, in effect, a darkfield method. The specimen is illuminated with light in a portion of the illuminating cone and that direct light is masked in the conjugate back focal plane of the objective (Fig. 3). The only light to pass through this plane is refracted, reflected, or diffracted by the specimen. 

In the x-ray portion of the spectmm, scientific CCDs have been utilized as imaging spectrometers for astronomical mapping of the sun (45), galactic diffuse x-ray background (46), and other x-ray sources. Additionally, scientific CCDs designed for x-ray detection are also used in the fields of x-ray diffraction, materials analysis, medicine, and dentistry. CCD focal planes designed for infrared photon detection have also been demonstrated in InSb (47) and HgCdTe (48) but are not available commercially. 

AlGaAs quantum well infrared photodetector (QWIP) focal planes have achieved sufficient sensitivity out to 10-p.m wavelength to result in scene temperature sensitivity of ca 0.2°C when the focal plane is cooled to 77 K. Spectral sensitivity is shown in Eigure 9c and array information is given in Table 1. The supedattice, a newer tool for achieving controlled activation energy, should present many alternative infrared detection techniques. 

Colorblind - As stated above, the focal plane arrays in use today can only detect intensity - wavelength must be provided by the optics of the instrument. 

Although astronomy is accustomed to the detection of a few photons per pixel, the electric charge of a few electrons is extremely small. A critical part of the design of a focal plane array is the amplifier which converts the small amount of charge in each pixel into a signal that can be transmitted off the detector. The amplifier in an optical or infrared detectors is typically a field effect transistor (FET), a solid state structure which allows a very small amount... 

For a radio astronomer, a star is a source of noise this noise can be detected and correlated from antenna to antenna in order to position precisely the source. For optical observer, the star is a source of photons, the unique photon goes through a variety of optical paths and materialize on the focal plane detector. 

Since modern FTIR spectrometers can operate in a rapid scan mode with approximately 50 ms time resolution, TRIR experiments in the millisecond time regime are readily available. Recent advances in ultra-rapid scanning FTIR spectroscopy have improved the obtainable time resolution to 5 ms. Alternatively, experiments can be performed at time resolutions on the order of 1-10 ms with the planar array IR technique, which utilizes a spectrograph for wavelength dispersion and an IR focal plane detector for simultaneous detection of multiple wavelengths. ... 

Focal plane detectors are used primarily to detect ions separated in space by, for example, magnetic sector analyzers (see Section 2.2.2). The objective of an ideal focal plane detector is to simultaneously record the location of every ion in the spectrum. In many ways the photoplate (see Section 2.3.1) is the original focal plane detector, but it has today been more or less replaced with designs that rely on EM detectors (see Section 2.3.3). A common arrangement is to allow the spatially disperse ion beams simultaneously to impinge on an MCP (see Section 2.3.3.2). The secondary electrons generated by the ion impacts then strike a one- or two-dimensional array of metal strips and the current from the individual electrodes is recorded. A tutorial on the fundamentals of focal plane detectors is found in Reference 283. Reference 284 provides a relatively recent review of MS detector-array technology. 

Fig. 4.63. Array detector in the focal plane of a magnetic sector to detect a small mass range simultanously. By courtesy of Thermo Electron (Bremen) GmbH.

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