What can record images at a stunning 4.5Mfps?
An innovative X-ray camera being built with STFC’s world-class engineering expertise, in collaboration with the University of Glasgow and to be delivered to the XFEL (X-ray Free-Electron Laser).
What will it be used for?
What moves so fast that you need to capture it at 4.5Mfps and play it back in agaonizing slow motion? Apparently, it will be useful in mapping the atomic details of viruses, pinpointing the molecular composition of individual cells, and otherwise contributing to drug discovery.
How much will it cost?
The prototype will cost approx. £3 million (US $5 million).
Where is it being constructed?
The European XFEL is being constructed near Hamburg in Northern Germany as a 2-mile-long facility.
How does it work?
It uses superconducting accelerator technology to accelerate electrons which then generate X-ray flashes a billion times brighter than those produced by conventional X-ray sources. Each flash will last less than one hundred million billionth of a second. With the properties of laser light, these short, intense flashes will, for example, make it possible to take three-dimensional X-ray images of single molecules.
via engadget