x - ray astronomy detector
overview of x - ray astronomy and x - ray sources: black holes to galaxy clusters .
large - absorber tes x - ray microcalorimeters and the micro - x detector array .
position - sensitive czt detectors for x - ray and gamma - ray astronomy j. matteson
development of arrays of transition edge sensors for application in x - ray astronomy .
a mercuric iodide detector system for x - ray astronomy: i. design considerations and predictions of background and sensitivity - sciencedirect
czt detectors for hard x - ray & gamma ray astronomy: current technologies. ann parson, gsfc
detector systems for the x - ray evolving universe spectroscopy mission (xeus) m. bavdaz et al
the operation of scintillation and solid state detectors for gamma - ray astronomy is the same as it is for x - ray astronomy. we' ve described the basics of these types of detectors on the x - ray detector page. below we describe three types of detectors used uniquely for gamma - ray astronomy: compton scattering detectors, pair telescopes, and air cerenkov detectors .
development of x - ray microcalorimeters for future japanese x -. . | inis
what is x - ray astronomy and what can astronomers learn by studying the universe in x - rays? visit our science pages to find out .
astro - h will feature an x - ray calorimeter as one of it' s x - ray detectors .
11 pages, 8 figures, to appear in proc. spie 5898, uv, x - ray, and gamma - ray space instrumentation for astronomy xiv
how do we measure the energy (or wavelength) of an x - ray photon? we need the x - ray to give all its energy to a detector. that energy will change something in the detector and, by measuring the change, we can determine the energy of the incoming x - ray .
x - ray cameras & gamma - ray detectors (0. 5 - 400 kev )
the quest of x - ray astronomy is to be able to detect a weak source against a fairly strong background. the relative weakness of x - ray sources has prevented detectors such as film from finding a place in cosmic x - ray astronomy. source detection is done on a photon - by - photon basis. in x - ray astronomy, a source that gives just one photon per centimeter per second (in the 1 - 10 kev range) at earth is considered a bright cosmic x - ray source .
euv, x - ray, and gamma - ray instrumentation for astronomy and atomic physics; aug. 7 - 11, 1989; san diego, ca; united states
photo of the hard x - ray detector before it was installed on the suzaku satellite. (credit: jaxa / isas and nasa )
the physics of x - ray conversion for phosphors is essentially the same as described for scintillators. also, the key functional elements of any phosphor - based detector are the same as for a scintillator. for astronomy, the similarities end there. while large area single crystals of nai and csi are valued for their stopping power in hard x - ray and gamma - ray astronomy, thin layers of phosphors are used to do high resolution, soft x - ray imaging .
first x - ray pictures of the sun. discovery of 40 extra - solar x - ray sources, including x - ray stars, the crab nebula pulsar, supernova remnants, and the galaxy m87 .
advanced x - ray ccd detectors for the constellation - x and maxim missions george r. ricker, mit
global astronomy: collaboration across cultures is based on the graphene theme by syahir hakim .
advanced x - ray ccd detectors for the constellation - x and maxim missions - george r. ricker, mit
tumay o. tumer, terrence j. o' neill, kevin c. hurley, hakki ogelman, robert j. paulos, richard charles puetter, eric j. beuville, w. j. hamilton, r proctor ,
new high - resolution gamma - ray burst detector: all - sky x - ray and gamma - ray astronomy monitor (axgam) ,
proc. spie 3114, euv, x - ray, and gamma - ray instrumentation for astronomy viii, (15 october 1997) ;
2001 w. tucker & k. tucker, revealing the universe: the making of the chandra x - ray observatory, harvard u. press 1998 j. trumper et al. , the invisible sky: rosat and the age of x - ray astronomy, copernicus books 1995 p. charles & f. seward, exploring the x - ray universe, cambridge univ. press 1985 w. tucker & r. giacconi, the x - ray universe, harvard u. press urltoken history of x - ray astronomy field guide einstein observatory historical archive
high resolution detector technologies for an advanced compton telescope. elena aprile, columbia univ .
detection and localization of gamma - ray bursts, and a possible new type of x - ray burst that may be related to gamma - ray bursts .
no matter which observational technique is used to view the x - ray sky, the final outcome of a measurement is determined by the properties of the electronic detector with which the collimated, focused, or diffracted x - ray photons eventually interact .
maxi continues to detect x - ray transient phenomena and rapidly inform the world of its position and brightness. the observation results about 1000 x - ray sources are provided in every day. maxi also provides the latest x - ray catalog .
superconducting transition - edge sensor x - ray microcalorimeters john m. martinis et al
volker dangendorf, amos breskin, rachel chechik, horst w. schmidt - boecking ,
x - ray imaging gas scintillation detector with csi - wire chamber uv - photon readout ,
proc. spie 1235, instrumentation in astronomy vii, (1 july 1990) ;
tumay o. tumer, terrence j. o' neill, kevin c. hurley, hakki ogelman, robert j. paulos, richard charles puetter, eric j. beuville, w. j. hamilton, r proctor ,
new high - resolution gamma - ray burst detector: all - sky x - ray and gamma - ray astronomy monitor (axgam )
, proc. spie 3114, euv, x - ray, and gamma - ray instrumentation for astronomy viii, (15 october 1997); doi: 10. 1117 / 12. 283786; urltoken
ubertini p. et al. (1995) integral x - ray monitor: a proposal for the hard x - ray imager on - board integral. in: bassani l. , di cocco g. (eds) imaging in high energy astronomy. springer, dordrecht
collaboration allows astronomers and engineers to pool resources and expertise to advance our understanding of the universe. nasa and isas have worked together for the past three decades on x - ray astronomy .
with seven different instruments onboard, granat was designed to observe the universe at energies ranging from x - ray to gamma - ray. specific instruments were meant to study gamma - ray bursts and other transient x - ray sources while others were intended to image x - ray sources near the galactic center. one instrument (watch) was designed to monitor the sky continuously and alert the other instruments to new or interesting x - ray sources .
x - ray photons have energies that are among the highest for light. when detector material absorbs the energy from an incoming photon, the material heats up just a little. the amount of the temperature difference gives a measure of the energy of the incoming x - ray .
x _ ray science. steven s. murray, harvard - smithsonian center for astrophysics .
gas proportional pixel detectors for x and gamma ray imaging p. deines - jones et al
ginga was the first x - ray astronomy collaboration between agencies in the u. s. and isas, which forged the way for future collaborations with nasa. it operated from 1987 until 1991 .
astrosat is a planned multiwavelength astronomy satellite, with four x - ray instruments and one uv / optical instrument on board. rri is involved in timing calibration and software development for the large area xenon proportional counters (laxpc). rri also contributed significantly towards two other x - ray instruments of astrosat, namely the scanning x - ray sky monitor (ssm) and the cadmium - zinc - telluride detector array (czt) both of which use the coded aperture mask imaging technique .
we distinguish scintillators from phosphors, at least in x - ray astronomy, by defining bulk crystalline materials such as nai and csi as scintillators, and thin granular layers of rare earth oxysulphides as phosphors .
monitor of all - sky x - ray image (maxi) - 04. 25. 18
this is the first of two papers describing an extremely sensitive astronomical hard x - ray telescope design based on a mercuric iodide (hgi 2) detector shielded by a bismuth germanate (bi 4 ge 3 o 12) scintillator. in a version suitable for a spacelab mission, this shielded detector is located at the focus of a pyrolytic graphite or lithium fluoride concentrator (the hard x - ray diffraction telescope, or hxdt). the background counting rate of the mercuric iodide detector at balloon altitudes is calculated using a monte carlo simulation of the detector assembly in the radiation environment at 40 km above sea level. in paper ii of this series, these predictions are compared to actual balloon flight measurements of a prototype detector assembly .
aleksander gorgolewski, jaromir barylak, marek stęślicki, żaneta szaforz, jarosław bąkała ,
solpex x - ray polarimeter detector luminescence background calculated using geant4 simulation software ,
proc. spie 10031, photonics applications in astronomy, communications, industry, and high - energy physics experiments 2016, 100313v (28 september 2016) ;
designing x - ray telescopes and detectors poses many challenges to engineers. visit our technology pages to see how x - rays are captured and observed .
position - sensitive czt detectors for x - ray and gamma - ray astronomy - j. matteson, w. heindl, e. kalemci, m. pelling, r. rothschild, t. skelton, ucsd, p. hink, k. slavis, wustl
volker dangendorf, amos breskin, rachel chechik, horst w. schmidt - boecking ,
x - ray imaging gas scintillation detector with csi - wire chamber uv - photon readout
, proc. spie 1235, instrumentation in astronomy vii, (1 july 1990); doi: 10. 1117 / 12. 19153; urltoken
scintillators work by converting x - ray energy into visible light. the energy of the incoming x - ray is completely absorbed by the material, exciting a molecule of the detector material. when the molecule de - excites, it emits a pulse of light, this time in the optical region of the electromagnetic spectrum. so, in this way, the incoming x - ray has been converted to optical light .
discovery that wide energy and angular control of x ray and neutron trajectories can be achieved with high efficiency by the use of shaped arrays of hollow capillaries has made possible important new applications in science, medicine, and industry. these include medical diagnostic imaging, medical therapy, analysis of the composition and structure of materials, x - ray microscopy, x - ray astronomy, industrial process and fault analysis, and x - ray lithography. the status and prospects for this remarkable range of possibilities is summarized in this report .
survey used large proportional counters that covered a wide range of x - ray energies. discovered the cygnus superbubble, and gathered detailed information on spectra of active galactic nuclei and the x - ray background .
discovery of scorpius x - 1, the first cosmic x - ray source and x - ray background, a signal appearing to come from all directions, possibly a truly diffuse emission and possibly due to many sources, too faint to be resolved individually .
the first large x - ray telescope with mirrors. einstein made the first x - ray images of shock waves in supernova remnants, hot gas in galaxies and clusters of galaxies. einstein also located accurately over 7000 x - ray sources, including stellar coronas, x - ray binaries, galaxies and quasars. it made possible a new way to study the mysterious dark matter that is present in galaxies and clusters of galaxies and showed that most of the x - ray background is probably due to discrete sources .
the alkali halides nai and csi, activated by a small amount of either thallium or sodium impurity, have been the scintillators of choice so far in x - ray astronomy. this has been true because these materials can be made into large area crystals, have good x - ray stopping power, and are efficient light producers .
the baseline detector system is a high pressure imaging proportional counter placed behind a coded mask placed at 4 meters from the detector window. the instrument view angle is limited by a square passive collimator with a fov of 6 degrees fwhm .
illustration of a the basic operation of a compton scattering detector. (credit: nasa' s imagine the universe )
ezio caroli, giuseppe bertuccio, adriano cola, rui m. curado da silva, ariano donati, waldes dusi, gianni landini, paul siffert, marco sampietro, john buchan stephen ,
hard x - ray polarimetry with a thick cdte position sensitive spectrometer ,
proc. spie 4140, x - ray and gamma - ray instrumentation for astronomy xi, (13 december 2000) ;
the 1991 - 2016 archive of the icso proceedings is a resource made freely available to serve the space optics and astronomy communities .
magnified image of an array of x - ray calorimeters. (credit: nasa / goddard space flight center )
aleksander gorgolewski, jaromir barylak, marek stęślicki, żaneta szaforz, jarosław bąkała ,
solpex x - ray polarimeter detector luminescence background calculated using geant4 simulation software
, proc. spie 10031, photonics applications in astronomy, communications, industry, and high - energy physics experiments 2016, 100313v (28 september 2016); doi: 10. 1117 / 12. 2249349; urltoken
mihara t, kawai n, yoshida a, sakurai i, kamae t, matsuoka m, shirasaki y, sugizaki m, yuan w, tanaka i. performance of the gsc engineering - counter for maxi / iss. x - ray and gamma - ray instrumentation for astronomy xii; 2002 january 31 173 - 186 .
ezio caroli, giuseppe bertuccio, adriano cola, rui m. curado da silva, ariano donati, waldes dusi, gianni landini, paul siffert, marco sampietro, john buchan stephen ,
hard x - ray polarimetry with a thick cdte position sensitive spectrometer
, proc. spie 4140, x - ray and gamma - ray instrumentation for astronomy xi, (13 december 2000); doi: 10. 1117 / 12. 409157; urltoken
asca was launched in 1993 and made over 3000 observations of the x - ray sky in its 8 years of operations .
in 1962, a team of scientists under the direction of riccardo giacconi at american science and engineering in cambridge, ma. , used a small x - ray detector aboard an aerobee rocket to discover scorpius x - 1, the first source of x - rays outside our solar system. forty years later, over 100, 000 x - ray sources have been detected, the most distant of which is 13 billion light years from earth. this extraordinary leap in sensitivity has been due, in large part, to the development of telescopes that can focus x - rays .
a large format array of transition - edge - sensor (tes) microcalorimeters is a promising detector for high - resolution spectroscopy in x - ray astronomy. we are developing such a detector for future japanese missions. in this paper, we present the recent progress in our work, particularly in the improvement of the energy resolution and the x - ray absorber fabrication. the energy resolution of our single pixel detector was improved to 25 ev (fwhm) at 5. 9 kev. this is limited by pulse shape variation and excess noise. we describe the characteristics of these two limiting factors, and suggest several possible ways to improve the performance. as for attaching x - ray absorbers with a high coverage fraction, we are proposing an electrodeposition method involving a two - layer lift - off process. we describe the details of this method and show the results of the test sample fabricated on a silicon wafer. (author )
perhaps the most intriguing advance in x - ray astronomy instrumentation in the past couple decades has been the development of single photon calorimeters, spearheaded by work at nasa' s goddard space flight center. these devices detect x - rays by the temperature pulses they generate in a small absorber which is cooled to a fraction of a kelvin .
when an x - ray interacts with matter, it can can give all of its energy to an electron (a process called photo - electric absorption), or it can give some of its energy (a process called compton scattering), or it can scatter without losing any energy (a process called rayleigh scattering). the probability associated with each of these kinds of scattering depends on the energy of the x - ray photon, the bound state the electron is in, and the scattering angle. for the x - ray energies of most interest to x - ray astronomy, photo - electric absorption is much more likely than either kind of scattering .
in: euv, x - ray, and gamma - ray instrumentation for astronomy and atomic physics; proceedings of the meeting, san diego, ca, aug. 7 - 11, 1989 (a90 - 50251 23 - 35). bellingham, wa, society of photo - optical instrumentation engineers, 1989, p. 306 - 315 .
riken symposium on' development and application of superconductor radiation detector'. stj workshop; wako, saitama (japan); 16 - 17 jan 2002
8: 00 9: 00am registration 9: 00 9: 30am gamma - ray science' fiona harrison, cal tech 9: 30 10: 00am high resolution detector technologies for an advanced compton telescope' elena aprile, columbia univ. 10: 00 10: 30am czt detectors for hard x - ray & gamma ray astronomy - current technologies - ann parson, gsfc 10: 30 11: 00am coffee break 11: 00 11: 30am detectors for gev gamma rays - bob hartman, gsfc 11: 30 12: 30pm contributed talks 12: 30 2: 00pm lunch 2: 00 2: 30pm x - ray science' steven s. murray, harvard - smithsonian center for astrophysics 2: 30 3: 00pm x - ray ccds' mark bautz, mit 3: 00 3: 30pm poster review highlights 3: 30 4: 00pm coffee break 4: 00 4: 30pm x - ray calorimeters' caroline stahle, gsfc 4: 30 5: 30pm contributed talks
two additional science instruments provide detailed information about the x - ray energy, the letg and hetg spectrometers. these are grating arrays which can be flipped into the path of the x - rays just behind the mirrors, where they redirect (diffract) the x - rays according to their energy. the x - ray position is measured by hrc or acis, so that the exact energy can be determined. the science instruments have complementary capabilities to record and analyze x - ray images of celestial objects and probe their physical conditions with unprecedented accuracy .
optical thru x - ray single photon imaging spectrometer using superconducting tunnel junctions - d. e. prober et al (download pdf format )
x - ray fiber optics are bundles of hollow tubes which transmit x rays by multiple grazing incidence reflections. they provide a means of shielding xuv and x - ray instruments used for plasma diagnostics of magnetic confinement devices from the adverse effects of energetic neutrons and neutron induced gamma radiation. we have designed and built x - ray transmitting fiber optic bundles for instruments covering the ranges 60 to 200 ev and 3 to 10 kev. we have measured the performance of such bundles in the laboratory at 280 ev and at 6. 4, 8, an 10 kev and compared it with simple computer models of x - ray fiber transmission .
x - rays interact strongly with electrons. if you' ve ever had a medical or dental x - ray, you were probably given a lead drape to protect you from the x - rays. lead is very good at blocking x - rays because each lead atom has 82 electrons and the atoms of lead are packed pretty close. lead, then, stops x - rays because it has a large electron density .
how does the xrs instrument measure x - rays? watch dr. caroline kilbourne describe the instrument in this short clip from
building the coolest x - ray satellite .
( credit: nasa / suzaku )
the surface finishing of x - ray grazing incidence optics is the most demanding area of optical processing. both in terms of metrology and application of optical finishing techniques. this paper discusses the application of specialized metrology and finishing techniques in producing a low x - ray scatter grazing incidence telescope .
x - ray spectroscopy. since the grating spectrometers can measure energy to an accuracy of up to one part in a thousand, they are used in the study of detailed energy spectra, distinguishing individual x - ray lines. this enables the temperature, ionization and chemical composition to be explored .
usually, then, when an x - ray stops in a detector, it has given all of its energy to one electron. that electron can rattle around in the detector and give energy to other electrons. in some materials, these electrons will have enough energy to be freed of their host atoms. in that case, applying an electric field will allow those free electrons to be collected and counted. the number of electrons collected tells you the energy that was deposited .
chandra x - ray center, operated for nasa by the smithsonian astrophysical observatory this site was developed with funding from nasa under contract nas8 - 03060 .
t. r. fisher, j. w. hamilton, j. d. hawley, j. r. kilner, m. r. murphy, g. h. nakano ,
imaging germanium spectrometer with rotational modulation grid collimators ,
proc. spie 1159, euv, x - ray, and gamma - ray instrumentation for astronomy and atomic physics, (27 november 1989) ;
intense photostimulated luminescence (psl) is observed, for the first time, in x - ray irradiated europium - doped potassium chloride (kcl: eu) single crystals. the intensity of psl with a peak at about 420 nm, which is emitted by stimulation with 560 nm light, is proportional to the optical density of the f centers, which are created by x - ray irradiation, over the wide range of the x - ray absorbed dose. this suggests that kcl: eu is one of the most attractive candidates for a two - dimensional x - ray imaging sensor utilizing the psl phenomenon .
a new type of x - ray real time still image detector named 'x ray to visible light prom (xtv - prom)' has been developed. xtv - prom consists of a thin bi 12 sio 20 (bso) single crystal plate, transparent insulating layers, and two electrodes on both faces of the crystal plate. one electrode is transparent and the other refracts readout lights and lets in x rays. several tens of kev x rays generate electron - hole pairs in the crystal and an x - ray image is recorded as a charge pattern. a voltage pattern generated from the charge pattern causes the pockels effect and the recorded x - ray image is converted to the visible light image using the effect of the crystal. the recorded image can be erased and the device can be used repeatedly. the xtv - prom with a large active area (18 x 18 mm 2) and high resolution (25 micrometers) has been made by a new process for polishing bso crystal thinly. the xtv - prom has a good response for bremsstrahlung x rays higher than 30 kev .
bepposax is the first x - ray mission with a scientific payload covering more than three decades of energy - from 0. 1 to 300 kev, with moderate imaging capability. bepposax has proved to be especially useful for wide band spectra of active galactic nuclei, and for studying gamma - ray bursts by determining their positions with an unprecedented precision and monitoring their x - ray afterglow .
although rxte does not have focusing x - ray mirrors, it has the unique capability to study rapid time variability in the emission of cosmic x - ray sources over a wide band of x - ray energies, and has made valuable contributions to our understanding of the behavior of matter in the vicinity of neutron stars and black holes. extremely rapid variability observed by rxte may be evidence for the dragging of space by strong gravity in the vicinity of black holes .
monitor of all - sky x - ray image (maxi) is an x - ray all - sky monitor, to scan almost the entire sky once every 96 minutes for a mission life of more than two years. maxi on iss has been observing the x - ray sky from aug 2009. the detection sensitivity will be about 20 mcrab (5 sigma level) for one - orbit maxi operation, 2–3 mcrab for one day, and 1 mcrab for one week, reaching a source confusion limit of 0. 2 mcrab in one - year observation. the systematic survey of the x - ray variabilities to study the nature of active celestial objects is an important objective of maxi. so far, maxi has detected many x - ray transient phenomena and rapidly informed the world of its sky positions and x - ray brightness. in principle. the astronomical data obtained with maxi is now available at the maxi web site .
detector systems for the x - ray evolving universe spectroscopy mission (xeus) - m. bavdaz, a. peacock, a. parmar, m. beijersbergen, j. schiemann, space science department of esa, estec, 2200ag noordwijk, netherlands. directorate of manned spaceflight and microgravity esa, estec, 2200ag noordwijk, netherlands
the asca x - ray observatory with low resolution mirrors, and the first large ccd detectors, was especially designed to study the detailed spectra of x - ray sources in supernova remnants, active galactic nuclei and galaxy clusters. found first evidence of the gravitational redshift due to the strong gravitational field around a black hole .
to measure the temperature increase in an absorber due to an x - ray, it is necessary to have a very sensitive thermometer  something that had a physical property that changed drastically for a small change in temperature. that detector should also have a small heat capacity, so its temperature would change a lot for a small change in energy. it' s also best to have the detector and thermometer work at very low temperatures, because a small temperature change will be much more pronounced in a very cold system .
hard x - ray telescope for space flight use - upendra desai, larry orwig, code 682 gsfc / nasa, lawrence mertz, digiphase technology, palo alto, ca. , carl gaither, cna corporation, washington, dc, walter gibson, center for x - ray optics university at albany, n. y .
in september, 1949, a team led by herbert friedman of the naval research laboratory detected weak x - ray emission from the solar corona, the hot outer layers of the sun' s atmosphere. their experiment consisted of a collection of small geiger counters aboard a captured german v - 2 rocket. it took more than a decade before a greatly improved detector discovered x - rays coming from sources beyond the solar system .
the largest x - ray ccd ever build, with a sensitive area of 60 × 60 mm². the ccd was developed for the xmm - newton satellite mission .
uhuru, the first satellite dedicated to the observation of cosmic x - ray sources, was equipped with a sensitive proportional counter attached to a viewing pipe to locate the sources. it expanded the number of known sources to more than 400, showed that x - ray stars are neutron stars or black holes accreting matter from companions in binary star systems, and discovered x - rays from hot gas in galaxy clusters .
photos of detector towers for the large area telescope on fermi. on the left is a single tower, which is composed of a stack of interleaved planes of silicon strips and tungsten converters. on the right is a photo showing six towers installed on the detector housing. the lat has 16 of these towers in a 4x4 array. (credit: nasa / fermi )
this animation shows how the large area telescope on the fermi gamma - ray telescope works. a gamma ray (purple) interacts with the detector, creating an electron - positron pair which cascade down the tower. using the paths that the electron and positron take through the telescope, the direction of the original gamma - ray can be determined (shown in purple). (credit: nasa' s goddard space flight center conceptual image lab )
t. r. fisher, j. w. hamilton, j. d. hawley, j. r. kilner, m. r. murphy, g. h. nakano ,
imaging germanium spectrometer with rotational modulation grid collimators
, proc. spie 1159, euv, x - ray, and gamma - ray instrumentation for astronomy and atomic physics, (27 november 1989); doi: 10. 1117 / 12. 962566; urltoken
the inclusion of a broad band hard x - ray imager is important to the success of the international gamma - ray astrophysics laboratory (integral) mission, the next esa blue box m2 mission, due to be launched during april, 2001. the observatory payload comprises two main instruments, the imager and the spectrometer, and two monitors, the x - ray monitor (xrm) and the optical transient camera (otc) .
the science and an overview of the soft x - ray spectrometer onboard the stro - h mission are presented. the sxs consists of x - ray focusing mirrors and a microcalorimeter array and is developed by international collaboration lead by jaxa and nasa with european participation. the detector is a 6×6 format microcalorimeter array operated at a cryogenic temperature of 50 mk and covers a 3′×3′ field of view of the x - ray telescope of 5. 6 m focal length. we expect an energy resolution better than 7 ev (fwhm, requirement) with a goal of 4 ev. the effective area of the instrument will be 225 cm 2 at 7 kev; by a factor of about two larger than that of the x - ray microcalorimeter on board suzaku. one of the main scientific objectives of the sxs is to investigate turbulent and / or macroscopic motions of hot gas in clusters of galaxies .
fully depleted, 300 micron thick ccd image sensors with applications in the x - ray, uv, visible and near - ir regions, s. e. holland et al lbnl
a timing scintillation detector based on a plastic scintillator strip sized 35 × 5 × 1 cm 3 and sipm optical readout has been developed and characterized. for the best uniformity of the detector' s response to particle hits across its area, a set of sipm optical sensors has been incorporated into the scintillator throughout its volume. time resolution better than 260 ps (sigma) has been achieved for each point of the device. uniformity of the detector' s response is confirmed by amplitude measurements along the strip as well as measurements of the efficiency of scintillation detection, which, on average, is ~ 99% .
this instrument, as a monitor, will provide fine imaging and simultaneous x - ray flux measurements. the spectral resolution and sensitivity will be optimised to make it a competitive spectroscopic instrument for medium to high energy x - rays. the scientific rational and the experiment configuration are discussed .
the soft x - ray solar polarimeter - spectrometer (solpex) experiment is planned to be placed in roscosmos’ multipurpose laboratory module “nauka” on international space station (iss) in 2019. the experiment is design to detect polarization and x - ray spectra of solar flares. due to very high, few percent, linear polarization detection limit, accurate background estimation and modeling is crucial .
all x - ray proportional counters consist of a windowed gas cell, subdivided into a number of low - and high - electric field regions by some arrangement of electrodes. the signals induced on these electrodes by the motions of electrons and ions in the counting gas mixture contain information on the energies, arrival times, and interaction positions of the photons transmitted by the window. at energies less than 50 kev, x - rays interact with gas molecules via the photoelectric effect, with the immediate release of a primary photo - electron, followed by a cascade of auger electrons and / or fluorescent photons. to date, gas proportional counters have been the' workhorses' of x - ray astronomy .
rosat expanded the number of known x - ray sources to 125, 000 and proved to be especially valuable for investigating the multi - million degree gas present in the upper atmospheres of many stars, made the first detection of radiation from the hot surface of a neutron star, and comets. it resolved 70% of soft x - ray background, and made an extensive catalogue of galaxy clusters .
we present experimental results and designs of large - absorber transition - edge - sensor (tes) x - ray microcalorimeters. much of our effort has focused on developing close - packed arrays of 250 - 300 μm - sized pixels suitable for the x - ray microcalorimeter spectrometer (xms) on the international x - ray observatory. these efforts have produced devices with the requisite energy resolution of ≲ 2. 5 ev (fwhm) at 6 kev. there are several upcoming applications, however, that require arrays composed of significantly larger pixels. in this contribution we present experimental results from 490 μm - sized pixels that have attained 3. 5 ev energy resolution at 6 kev. these devices are precursors to the pixels that are being developed for the xms extended array. in addition, we briefly describe detector designs for the micro - x sounding rocket experiment, which also requires an array of large - area tes microcalorimeters .
n2 - we present experimental results and designs of large - absorber transition - edge - sensor (tes) x - ray microcalorimeters. much of our effort has focused on developing close - packed arrays of 250 - 300 μm - sized pixels suitable for the x - ray microcalorimeter spectrometer (xms) on the international x - ray observatory. these efforts have produced devices with the requisite energy resolution of ≲ 2. 5 ev (fwhm) at 6 kev. there are several upcoming applications, however, that require arrays composed of significantly larger pixels. in this contribution we present experimental results from 490 μm - sized pixels that have attained 3. 5 ev energy resolution at 6 kev. these devices are precursors to the pixels that are being developed for the xms extended array. in addition, we briefly describe detector designs for the micro - x sounding rocket experiment, which also requires an array of large - area tes microcalorimeters .
ab - we present experimental results and designs of large - absorber transition - edge - sensor (tes) x - ray microcalorimeters. much of our effort has focused on developing close - packed arrays of 250 - 300 μm - sized pixels suitable for the x - ray microcalorimeter spectrometer (xms) on the international x - ray observatory. these efforts have produced devices with the requisite energy resolution of ≲ 2. 5 ev (fwhm) at 6 kev. there are several upcoming applications, however, that require arrays composed of significantly larger pixels. in this contribution we present experimental results from 490 μm - sized pixels that have attained 3. 5 ev energy resolution at 6 kev. these devices are precursors to the pixels that are being developed for the xms extended array. in addition, we briefly describe detector designs for the micro - x sounding rocket experiment, which also requires an array of large - area tes microcalorimeters .
better than superman? an x - ray monitor on the space station examined the entire sky for galactic transient phenomena and discovered new black hole candidates; reported more than 20 binary x - ray pulsar outbursts; detected x - ray flares from 12 stars in its first two years, providing a unified picture for star flaring; and observed for the first time the instant that a massive black hole swallowed a star. the investigation released a catalog for high galactic - latitude sky sources and revealed the existence of a hypernova remnant estimated to be 3 million years old, believed to be the first in our galaxy .
when an x - ray photon heats a solid, it gives its energy to the whole solid. on average, each atom vibrates a little bit more than before the x - ray hit. temperature relates the total energy of a system to its state of disorder, or entropy. the
heat capacity
of a material gives a measure of how much the temperature rises for a given energy input .
gamma - ray detectors can be placed in two broad classes. the first class includes what would typically be called spectrometers or photometers in optical astronomy. these instruments are
light buckets
that focus on a region of the sky containing the target and collect as many photons as possible. these types of detectors typically use scintillators or solid - state detectors to transform the gamma - ray into optical or electronic signals, which are then recorded .
abstract =
we present experimental results and designs of large - absorber transition - edge - sensor (tes) x - ray microcalorimeters. much of our effort has focused on developing close - packed arrays of 250 - 300 μm - sized pixels suitable for the x - ray microcalorimeter spectrometer (xms) on the international x - ray observatory. these efforts have produced devices with the requisite energy resolution of ≲ 2. 5 ev (fwhm) at 6 kev. there are several upcoming applications, however, that require arrays composed of significantly larger pixels. in this contribution we present experimental results from 490 μm - sized pixels that have attained 3. 5 ev energy resolution at 6 kev. these devices are precursors to the pixels that are being developed for the xms extended array. in addition, we briefly describe detector designs for the micro - x sounding rocket experiment, which also requires an array of large - area tes microcalorimeters .
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the x - ray camera of maxi must stop the observation during the sun is in the field of view or iss is in the dense cosmic - particle regions (e. g. south atlantic anomaly). it is necessary to properly control the x - ray cameras. it is important to predict the attitude and position of iss precisely. the data broadcasted on iss is also utilized for the camera control .
and a maximum sensitivity field of view of ~ 5° x5°. the maximum angular resolution was 10 arcmin. its imaging capabilities were derived from the association of a coded mask and a position sensitive detector based on the anger camera principle .
ntd germanium - based microcalorimeters for x - ray and gamma - ray astronomy - eric silver a, simon bandler a, herbert schnopper a, stephen murray a, marco barbera c, norm madden b, don landis b, jeff beeman b, eugene haller b, greg tucker d. a harvard - smithsonian center for astrophysics, 60 garden street, cambridge, ma 02138, b lawrence berkeley national laboratory, 1 cyclotron road, berkeley, ca 94720, c osservatorio astronomico di palermo, palermo, italy, d brown university, providence, ri 02912
matsuoka m, kawasaki k, ueno s, tomida h, kohama m, ishikawa m, katayama h, suzuki m, miyakawa t, mihara t, isobe n, tsunemi h, miyata e, negoro h, nakajima m, kawai n, kataoka j, yoshida a, yamaoka k, morii m. an overview of maxi onboard jem - ef of the international space station. uv, x - ray, and gamma - ray space instrumentation for astronomy xv, san diego, ca; 2007 august 26 668611. 1 - 668611. 9 .
the chandra x - ray observatory combines the mirrors with four science instruments to capture and probe the x - rays from astronomical sources. the incoming x - rays are focused by the mirrors to a tiny spot (about half as wide as a human hair) on the focal plane, about 30 feet away. the focal plane science instruments, acis and hrc, are well matched to capture the sharp images formed by the mirrors and to provide information about the incoming x - rays: their number, position, energy and time of arrival .
the long - term time variability and random transient events are difficult to study with pointing telescopes, and require dedicated all sky mission. to research exotic phenomena systematically, the latest x - ray astronomical catalog is needed .
pictured above is the monitor of all - sky x - ray image (maxi) that is mounted externally on the japanese experiment module (jem) onboard the international space station. (image provided by jaxa. )
by reconstructing the tracks of the charged pair as it passes through the vertical series of trackers, the gamma - ray direction, and therefore its origin on the sky, are calculated. in addition, through the analysis of the scattering of the pair (which is an energy - dependent phenomenon) or through the absorption of the pair by a scintillator detector or a calorimeter after they exit the spark chamber, the total energy of the initial gamma - ray is determined .
while a typical gamma - ray detector must be flown with a balloon or on a satellite above the earth' s atmosphere to avoid absorption of the gamma - ray photon, the air cerenkov telescope makes the atmosphere part of the detector. when gamma rays encounter earth' s atmosphere, they create an
air shower .
this process involves the original photon undergoing a pair production interaction high up in the atmosphere, creating an electron and positron. these particles then interact, through bremsstrahlung and compton scattering, and give up some of their energy to create energetic photons. these in turn create more electrons, resulting in a cascade of electrons and photons that travel down through the atmosphere until the particles run out of energy .
the monitor of all - sky x - ray image (maxi) investigation is designed to continuously monitor, through a systematic survey, x - ray sources and variabilities as the international space station (iss) orbits earth. located at equipment exchange unit (eer) site 1 on the japanese experiment module - exposed facility (jef), maxi is comprised of a couple highly sensitive x - ray detectors, the gas slit camera (gsc) and the solid - state slit camera (ssc). besides the goal of performing a complete sky survey, this research helps to address fundamental astrophysics questions and allows researchers to better understand the current state and evolution of our universe .
another approach to x - ray detection is measuring the heat it deposits in a material. all those excited electrons would rather go back to their original energy, to return to what is called the ground state. through scattering with other electrons or with vibrations in the solid itself, they can lose that extra energy. that energy heats the solid, increasing its temperature. the temperature change gives a measure of the energy of the incoming x - ray .
calculating the background photoelectric effect, compton scattering and bremsstrahlung were taken into account. luminescence background from particles produced in solar flares was simulated using geant4. additionally, theoretical spectra was modeled in order to simulate full solpex detector response for m5 and x1 solar flare classes .
the chandra advanced ccd imaging spectrometer (acis) is one of two focal plane instruments. as the name suggests, this instrument is an array of charged coupled devices (ccd' s), which are sophisticated versions of the crude ccd' s used in camcorders. this instrument is especially useful because it can make x - ray images, and at the same time, measure the energy of each incoming x - ray. thus scientists can make pictures of objects using only x - rays produced by a single chemical element, and so compare (for example) the appearance of a supernova remnant in light produced by oxygen ions to that of neon or iron ions. it is the instrument of choice for studying temperature variations across x - ray sources such as vast clouds of hot gas in intergalactic space, or chemical variations across clouds left by supernova explosions .
squid multiplexers for large transition edge sensor (tes) detector arrays - s. nam, j. chervenak, e. grossman, k. irwin, j. martinis, national institute of standards and technology, h. moseley, r. shafer, goddard space flight center
analytical models are presented describing the x - ray - excited emission of'' no - loss'' photoelectrons and auger electrons and the energy distribution of emitted secondary electrons. the secondary electron energy distribution is given in terms of the electron kinetic energy e
m. i. t. and as & e collaborated in a joint development of a rocket experiment to measure the position of sco x - 1 with sufficient accuracy to enable identification of its optical counterpart. essential for the experiment was a “modulation collimator, ” which made possible precise position determinations before the advent of focusing x - ray telescopes. it was invented by minoru oda, a frequent visitor to m. i. t. from the university of tokyo. giacconi’s group carried out the experiment in collaboration with oda, hale bradt and others at mit. it located sco x - 1 to within an area of one - thousandth of a square degree. within that area the optical counterpart of sco x - 1 was found - a faint flickering blue star of the 13th magnitude. its x - ray luminosity is more than a thousand times the total luminosity of the sun in all wavelengths .
the explanation of sco x - 1 came from iosif shklovsky, a russian theoretician. he proposed that it is a binary system consisting of an ordinary star and a neutron star in an orbit so close that it draws matter from its companion in a process called accretion. neutron stars have the mass of a typical star like the sun, but crushed by gravitational collapse into a sphere about 10 kilometers in radius. when accreting matter falls onto the surface of a neutron star, the kinetic energy it gained in the fall is converted to heat at 100 million degrees and radiated as x - rays at a power level limited only by the rate of accretion. we know now that all the hundred or so bright x - ray stars in our milky way galaxy are
accretion - powered x - ray binaries
.
background rejection is critical in non - imaging x - ray proportional counters. in all gas counters, there are 3 distinct categories of background rejection techniques: energy selection (rejecting all events which deposit energies outside the x - ray bandpass), rise - time discrimination, and anti - coincidence within a sub - divided gas cell (a technique which completely replaced the early technique of surrounding the active gas cell with a shield of plastic scintillator). energy selection and the anti - coincidence method can, in practice, both reduce the raw background rates by a factor of 100. a factor of 100 is what is usually required. the rise - time discrimination method becomes less effective as the x - ray energy increases. for 6 kev photons, background reduction factor of 30 has been achieved with this method .
electronic position encoding can be done either digitally or in an analog fashion. a digital encoder associates a preamplifier and counting circuit with each pixel, or resolution element, of the field. an analog system estimates event coordinates from the properties of voltage waveforms at different output electrodes. digital schemes are capable of handling higher count rates, but are more complex systems. in x - ray astronomy, where count rates are typically low and system simplicity is a good thing, the analog readout, in which it is the centroid of the induced charge distribution which is encoded, is more common .
the four instruments are co - aligned and will simultaneously observe the same sky region. the x - ray monitor will provide images with arcminute angular resolution in the 3–80 kev band, with minimum detectable flux of one millicrab at 80 kev for a typical 10 5 second observation .
superconducting transition - edge sensor x - ray microcalorimeters - john m. martinis, n. bergren, s. deiker, g. c. hilton, k. d. irwin, s. w. nam, d. a. rudman and d. a. wollman
the region from about 1 to 30 mev is a difficult part of the gamma - ray astronomy energy range to study, but it can be interesting. in this energy range, astronomers can study nuclear emission lines, some pulsars, active galaxies, solar flares and gamma - ray bursts. this is also the energy range where compton scattering is the dominant physical interaction between light and matter. compton scattering occurs when a photon hits an electron and some of the photon energy is transferred to the charged particle. the compton scatter telescope design uses this interaction as the basis of its detection scheme .
these gratings diffract the intercepted x - rays, changing their direction by amounts that depend sensitively on the x - ray energy, much like a prism separates light into its component colors. one of the focal plane cameras, either hrc or acis, detects the location of the diffracted x - ray, enabling a precise determination of its energy. (a grating is able to diffract because it has a regularly spaced pattern. for example, music cds act as a type of grating: the grooves diffract, so that when light falls on the shiny side of the cd, a rainbow effect is seen. as the cd is tilted through different angles, different colors come into view. )
spie conferences bring together engineers and scientists to present their latest research and to network with peers. each year spie conferences result in approximately 350 proceedings volumes comprising 16, 000 + papers and presentation recordings reporting on photonics - driven advancements in areas such as biomedicine, astronomy, defense and security, renewable energy, and more.
x-ray astronomy detectors are instruments that detect x-rays for use in the study of x-ray astronomy . x-ray astronomy is an observational branch of astronomy which deals with the study of x-ray emission from celestial objects . x-radiation is absorbed by the earth 's atmosphere , so instruments to detect x-rays must be taken to high altitude by balloons , sounding rockets , and satellites . x-ray astronomy is part of space science . x-ray astronomy detectors have been designed and configured primarily for energy and occasionally for wavelength detection using a variety of techniques usually limited to the technology of the time . 
x-ray astronomy detectors are instruments that detect x-rays for use in the study of x-ray astronomy. x-ray astronomy is an observational branch of astronomy which deals with the study of x-ray emission from celestial objects. x-radiation is absorbed by the earth's atmosphere, so instruments to detect x-rays must be taken to high altitude by balloons, sounding rockets, and satellites. x-ray astronomy is part of space science. x-ray astronomy detectors have been designed and configured primarily for energy and occasionally for wavelength detection using a variety of techniques usually limited to the technology of the time.
x-ray astronomy detectors are instruments that detect x-rays for use in the study of x-ray astronomy. x-ray astronomy is an observational branch of astronomy which deals with the study of x-ray emission from celestial objects. x-radiation is absorbed by the earth's atmosphere, so instruments to detect x-rays must be taken to high altitude by balloons, sounding rockets, and satellites. x-ray astronomy is part of space science. x-ray astronomy detectors have been designed and configured primarily for energy and occasionally for wavelength detection using a variety of techniques usually limited to the technology of the time.