Imaging plate and its application to X-ray diffraction of muscle.

The excellent performance of the IP as an integrating X-ray area detector makes it well suited to X-ray diffraction and scattering experiments using synchrotron radiation. The IP is particularly useful for biological specimens for which the shortest exposure time or the smallest amount of X-ray dose possible is required. It is also useful for time-resolved measurements of an X-ray diffraction pattern, to complement its uses in static measurements. A combination of two powerful tools, synchrotron radiation and imaging plates, has mutually enhanced the potentials of both. The IP may replace conventional X-ray film and some other X-ray detectors which have been conventionally used in many of the application fields of synchrotron radiation. As examples, it has recently proved to be very promising in experiments of X-ray diffraction under high pressure and high temperature (12) DEXAFS and X-ray diffuse scattering. X-ray microscopy will also benefit from the IP when the spatial resolution is improved to a few tens of microns in FWHM. When more intense X-rays are available from insertion devices installed in planned 6-8 GeV storage rings, the IP system will play a more important role as one of the best X-ray area detectors because of its high DQE and the lack of any instantaneous count-rate limitations.