Response of charge-coupled devices to direct electron bombardment

Abstract

We report on the response of three scientific charge-coupled devices (CCD), the RCA SID501, the Tektronix TK512M, and the Texas Instruments 4849, to direct electron bombardment. A scanning electron microscope is used to provide a temporally gated, focused electron source of precise energy and current. Both the detection efficiency and the line-spread response of the CCDs have been measured at incident electron energies in the range of 0.3–30 keV. Simple models for the detection process are discussed.