The traditional medium for collecting two-dimensional x-ray scattering patterns is photographic film. While x-ray film has excellent resolution, several factors make it a poor choice as a detection device: slow speed, limited dynamic range, the “human factor” (developing, fixing, film handling), and the lack of a commercial scanning system designed for reading two-dimensional x-ray films. Until recently, there were no practical alternatives to the use of photographic film for obtaining two-dimensional x-ray scattering data using a conventional x-ray source. In the past few years, two different detection systems have become available for collecting high quality two-dimensional x-ray scattering data: (1) the Siemens (Xentronics) area detector system, which is a gas filled, wire grid detector, and (2) the Fuji imaging-plate system, which utilizes a phosphor storage plate for imaging the x-ray scattering and a laser scanner to process the image.
Imaging plates as an integrating area detector for X-ray scattering and diffraction of polymers