PILATUS:: a two-dimensional X-ray detector for macromolecular crystallography

A large quantum-limited area X-ray detector for protein crystallography is under development at the Swiss Light Source. The final detector will be 2k x 2k pixels covering 40 x 40 cm(2). A three-module prototype with 1120 x 157 pixels covering an active area of 24.3 x 3.4 cm(2) has been tested. X-rays above 6 keV with peak count rates exceeding 5 x 10(5) X-ray/pixel/s could be detected in single photon counting mode. Statistics of module production and results of threshold trimming are presented. To demonstrate the potential of this new detector, protein crystal data were collected at beamline 6S of the SLS. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.