Performance improvement of Si(Li) Peltier cooled detectors

The spectrometric performance of Si(Li) Peltier cooled detectors was improved due to better electronics, a small-sized vacuum chamber, and an effective five-channel Peltier cooler, which provided a temperature difference of 132/spl deg/C at a sensitivity to heat loading that is less than 15 mWt//spl deg/C. This allowed us to fabricate circular Si(Li) Peltier cooled detectors with a thickness of 4-4.5 mm and a sensitive surface from 12 to 100 mm/sup 2/. Their energy resolution at an energy of 5.9 keV was from 158 to 253 eV depending on the sensitive surface area, while on 59.6 keV it was from 410 to 460 eV. Rectangular detectors with a thickness 4-4.5 mm and sensitive surface area 60 mm/sup 2/ had an energy resolution of 255 and 450 eV for energies of 5.9 and 59.6 keV, respectively.