Count‐rate, linearity, and performance of new backgammon detector technology

The meander wire backgammon technology has high levels of flux and spatial linearity across a wide range of energies. One of the attractive features of these technologies is the stability of response and robustness under long X-ray exposure, compactness, and portability. A key problem historically has been the limited range of count-rate for processing to the optimum resolution. We report dramatic advances in this and other areas appropriate for high-accuracy experiments including tests of quantum electrodynamics, fundamental relativistic atomic physics, X-ray calibration, and crystallography. We illustrate this technology applied to the Kα 1,2 spectra of titanium, chromium, and copper. The quality of the spectra permits deeper insight into atomic and solid state science and permits accurate measurement of energy and relativistic atomic physics processes, below 1-μm accuracy or down to 1 ppm in energy.