A Monte Carlo simulation code of energy dispersive (photon counting) silicon drift detectors (SDDs) for X-ray fluorescence (xrf) and spectrometry applications. The simulation includes energy-dispersive photon counting detectors intended for spectrometry and molecular imaging. The detector is based on the Amptek XR100 FastSDD X-ray detector (Amptek Inc., Bedford, MA, USA).
This simulation code implements an energy dispersive (photon counting) silicon drift detector (SDD) for xray fluorescence (xrf) and spectrometry applications. The simulation code uses the Geant4 toolkit. The detector parameters are based on Amptek XR100 FastSDD X-ray detector (Amptek Inc., Bedford, MA, USA). This code is free to use, share, and modify.
Author: Kunal Kumar (kunal.kumar@ovgu.de)
Please use the following reference:
Citation: Kumar K, Fachet M, Hoeschen C. High-Spatial-Resolution Benchtop X-ray Fluorescence Imaging through Bragg-Diffraction-Based Focusing with Bent Mosaic Graphite Crystals: A Simulation Study. Int J Mol Sci. 2024 Apr 26;25(9):4733. doi: 10.3390/ijms25094733. PMID: 38731956; PMCID: PMC11083219.
DOI: 10.3390/ijms25094733; PMID: 38731956; PMCID: PMC11083219
0- PREREQUISITES
This code has been developed on version Geant4-10.5.1. Compatibility with other Geant4 versions is not guaranteed. Code modifications might be necessary to ensure functionality on alternative Geant4 environments.
1- GEOMETRY DEFINITION
The geometry is constructed in the SDDDetectorConstruction class. The parameters for geometry are taken from the user manual (Amptek Silicon Drift Detector XR-100FastSDD, Available online).
2- PHYSICS LIST
The physics list is based on the Geant4 TestEm5 example (electromagnetic/TestEm5/src/PhysicsList.cc). Low-energy EM physics is implemented using the Penelope model.
3- PRIMARY GENERATOR
The primary generator is defined in the SDDPrimaryGeneratorAction class. The default kinematics is a 45 keV monoenergetic gamma pencil beam. See SDD.in.
4- SDD DETECTOR MODEL
The detector model is based on analytical equations implementing Fano and electronic noise. The parameters are obtained from the Amptek user manual and application Notes (Amptek Silicon Drift Detector XR-100FastSDD, Available online).
5- HOW TO RUN
- Execute SDD in the 'interactive mode' with visualization (Note for visualization: in the SDD.in file, please
reduce the number of primaries in the line: /run/beamOn 50000000):
% ./SDD
and type in the commands from SDD.in line by line:
Idle> /control/verbose 2
Idle> /tracking/verbose 1
Idle> /run/beamOn 10
Idle> ...
Idle> exit
or
Idle> /control/execute SDD.in
....
Idle> exit
- Execute SDD in the 'batch' mode from macro files
(without visualization)
% ./SDD SDD.in
% ./SDD SDD.in > SDD.out