Study of spatial resolution of YAG:Ce cathodoluminescent imaging screens

The aim of this paper is to find spatial resolution of YAG:Ce single crystal cathodoluminescent imaging screens at primary electron energies in the range from 20 to 100 keV using theoretical simulation as well as the experimental method. Calculations have been based on the MC model for energy distribution of excited electrons. Measurement of the spatial resolution was realized using the sharp edge projection method. As the projection object, the silicon single crystal plate with the hole made by the anisotropic etching was prepared and used. The edge of this object was examined at the magnification of up to 125,000×. For the edge projection method, the experimental system with the screen specimen cartridge and with the light-microscopic module using the magnifying objective and the CCD camera has been constructed and used. The simulated as well as experimental results have been processed and are presented in the form of line spread function (LSF). The resulted image qualities were quantified using modulation transfer function (MTF). Finally, the spatial resolutions of YAG:Ce single crystal imaging screens were determined as the number of lines per mm for the contrast of 50% and primary electron beam energies of 20, 60 and 100 keV.