Electron multiplying CCDs for the Pathfinder off-plane grating rocket experiment

The Pathfinder Off-plane Grating Rocket Experiment (OGRE-P) plans to use Electron-Multiplying CCDs as the primary detectors for the mission. Electron-multiplying CCDs incorporate an additional gain register that amplifies the photoelectron signal before readout, increasing sensitivity by reducing the impact of readout noise, making them ideal for low-light and high-speed X-ray imaging applications. With the additional gain, EM-CCDs amplify the signal to increase signal to noise for each detected photon which is important for photon counting X-ray observations. In addition, the EM-CCDs used have high spatial resolution and moderate energy resolution which works well with the high quantum efficiency in the soft-X-ray band. The EM-CCDs being used are being developed by XCAM in cooperation with the Open University. The mission consists of four EM-CCDs; three of which are located on a circle around the focal axis to be used for spectral data collection and the fourth directly in the center of the focal plane. We present promising results on the use of EM-CCDs for X-ray detection and spectral analysis for the mission as well as an update on camera calibration and operation.