MYTHEN2 Upgrade: Speed in All Conditions
A 10-minute read
MYTHEN2 is the Swiss army knife of detectors: small, highly modular, useful in many applications, and designed and produced in Switzerland! Now, with its new upgrades, it goes one step further and offers two new benefits to its users: vacuum compatibility in synchrotron (X) and laboratory (R) products, as well as frame rates that are four times higher than those of the MYTHEN2 R product line.
Speeding up Powder X-Ray Diffraction
Throughout the years, MYTHEN2 has earned the designation “classic” due to not only its extremely high resolution and dynamic range, but also its versatility. Within its huge portfolio, users can choose the sensor thickness that ensures the optimal signal-to-noise ratio for a chosen X-ray energy. The MYTHEN2 line features two module sizes with a compact design, which allows producers of laboratory equipment to fit the detector into any diffractometer, even in portable devices. On a larger scale, synchrotron users can unleash their creativity and assemble any number and type of modules into a multimodular system that runs at 1000 Hz at 24-bit dynamic range.
And now, the laboratory product line (R) is also ready to play allegro maestoso! The new upgrade increases the frame rate to 100 Hz and allows for fast and continuous scan measurements. In this interview, Hannes Mio, director of Photron-X, explains how he combined the increased frame rate with an adjustable detector window algorithm to further decrease background at low 2θ angles.
Vacuum Compatibility for X-ray Spectroscopy
Since the very beginning, MYTHEN has been used in X-ray spectroscopy at synchrotron sources, where its extremely narrow strip, high dynamic range, and speed were used for high-resolution X-ray absorption and X-ray emission studies. Lately, this detector has found its applications also in laboratories, where its sensor width has been used to collect a desired portion of a spectrum without scanning. Last year, at the Denver X-ray Conference, Shimadzu presented Xspecia, a laboratory spectrometer equipped with a MYTHEN2 R 1K detector. This position-sensitive wavelength-dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometer is optimized for battery research and enables fast measurements of high-resolution data. With the new product upgrade, X-ray spectroscopists can now discover the optional vacuum compatibility of the complete MYTHEN2 portfolio and use this detector further in synchrotron and laboratory applications.
MYTHEN2: A Small Detector for Big Applications
Among DECTRIS’ Hybrid Photon Counting X-ray detectors, MYTHEN2 is the smallest, but also one of the versatile product families. The benefits of MYTHEN2’s wide portfolio have been recognized by many users and partners, who have pushed for the use of MYTHEN2 in high-resolution PXRD, Pair Distribution Function, Small Angle X-ray Scattering, X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy, X-ray Emission Spectroscopy, X-ray reflectivity, residual stress, and retained austenite determination. We would like to thank these users for their continuous interest and support, and we are looking forward to hearing about the use of MYTHEN2’s new features!
