A significant advance in x-ray instrumentation resulted from the introduction of commercially available position-sensitive x-ray detectors (PSDs) in the early 1980's. In a typical application, a single fixed PSD allows the reduction of data collection times by two orders of magnitude (from hours to minutes or from minutes to fractions of seconds, depending on the application). Their properties, such as infinite contrast, are especially desirable in structural studies of biological macromolecules. Continued improvements in this detector technology should eventually impact standard medical diagnostic equipment (e.g. gamma ray detection for PET scans), as well. Present detectors suffer from the fragility and high cost of the materials used for their anode wires, a critical component. We propose to develop high strength fibers containing intrinsically conducting polymers as an alternative anode wire material. The bulk resistivity and mechanical properties of these fibers are ideally suited to this application.
