Charge sharing plays an important role in the performance of single-photon counting microstrip detectors, since the comparator threshold defines the effective pixel width. In this contribution, the PICASSO (Phase Imaging for Clinical Application with Silicon detector and Synchrotron radiatiOn) single-photon counting microstrip detector oriented in edge-on configuration has been used to study its spatial resolution as a function of the comparator threshold. The experiment was carried out with monochromatic x-rays at the SYRMEP beamline of the Elettra synchrotron radiation facility in Trieste (Italy). The Edge Spread Function (i.e. the integral of the Line spread Function, LSF) was measured by horizontally translating vertical slits from a bar-pattern test-object in front of the detector, at four different photon energies (19, 20, 22, and 25 keV) and for several different values of the comparator threshold. The effect of charge sharing between strips on the spatial resolution has been quantified by calculating the horizontal Modulation Transfer Function (MTF). Moreover, the composite LSF from neighboring pixels was obtained: this allowed estimating the optimal threshold for each photon energy by selecting the threshold at which the composite LSF would approach unity along the entire width of the pixel. The results show that at thresholds lower than half of the photon energy, charge sharing increases the effective pixel width, causing a drop of the MTF, and it is responsible for the appearance of peaks in the composite LSF. Conversely, at thresholds higher than half of the photon energy, the effective pixel width is reduced and the spatial resolution is increased, but the collection efficiency is compromised, as demonstrated by the presence of valleys in the composite LSF.
