The use of large-area, fine-pitch Silicon detectors has demonstrated the feasibility of wide field imaging experiments requesting very low resources in terms of weight, volume, power and costs. The flying SuperAGILE instrument is the first such experiment, adopting large-area Silicon microstrip detectors coupled to one-dimensional coded masks. With less than 10 kg, 12 watt and 0.04 m3 it provides 6-arcmin angular resolution over >1 sr field of view. Due to odd operational conditions, SuperAGILE works in the unfavourable energy range 18-60 keV. In this paper we show that the use of innovative large-area Silicon Drift Detectors allows to design experiments with arcmin-imaging performance over steradian-wide fields of view, in the energy range 2-50 keV, with spectroscopic resolution in the range of 300-570 eV (FWHM) at room temperature. We will show the concept, design and readiness of such an experiment, supported by laboratory tests on large-area prototypes. We will quantify the expected performance in potential applications on X-ray astronomy missions for the observation and long-term monitoring of Galactic and extragalactic transient and persistent sources, as well as localization and fine study of the prompt emission of Gamma-Ray Bursts in soft X-rays. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Concept for an Innovative wide-filed camara for X-ray astronomy
FRONTERA, Filippo;
2010
Abstract
The use of large-area, fine-pitch Silicon detectors has demonstrated the feasibility of wide field imaging experiments requesting very low resources in terms of weight, volume, power and costs. The flying SuperAGILE instrument is the first such experiment, adopting large-area Silicon microstrip detectors coupled to one-dimensional coded masks. With less than 10 kg, 12 watt and 0.04 m3 it provides 6-arcmin angular resolution over >1 sr field of view. Due to odd operational conditions, SuperAGILE works in the unfavourable energy range 18-60 keV. In this paper we show that the use of innovative large-area Silicon Drift Detectors allows to design experiments with arcmin-imaging performance over steradian-wide fields of view, in the energy range 2-50 keV, with spectroscopic resolution in the range of 300-570 eV (FWHM) at room temperature. We will show the concept, design and readiness of such an experiment, supported by laboratory tests on large-area prototypes. We will quantify the expected performance in potential applications on X-ray astronomy missions for the observation and long-term monitoring of Galactic and extragalactic transient and persistent sources, as well as localization and fine study of the prompt emission of Gamma-Ray Bursts in soft X-rays. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------I documenti in SFERA sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
